Named after the Dong Son Bronze Age culture, or vice versa.

The Dong Son BRONZE DRUMS exhibit the advanced techniques and the great skill in the lost-wax casting of large objects, the Co Loa drum would have required ...
www.viettouch.com/pre-hist/dongson_drums.html

Of ancient relics that have survived into the present, few are more magnificent than the Dong Son DRUMS of what is now Vietnam. ...
asiapacificuniverse.com/features/dongson.htm

They also were skilled bronze casters, as can be seen in the famous Dong Son DRUMS, which have been found widely in Southeast Asia and southern China. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dong_Son_culture

The study on Dong Son DRUMS in Vietnam to date can be divided into 5 basic stages: Stage 1: The 19th century and before; Stage 2: The French Domination ...
english.vista.gov.vn/.../200502188078435258/200504114542656843/200509273350009818/200509275795154454/

The Karen adopted the use of BRONZE DRUMS at some time prior to their 8th century migration from Yunnan into Burma where they settled and continue to live in the low mountains along the Burma - Thailand border. During a long period of adoption and transfer, the drum type was progressively altered from that found in northern Vietnam (DONG SON or Heger Type I) to produce a separate Karen type (Heger Type III). In 1904, Franz Heger developed a categorization for the four types of bronze drums found in Southeast Asia that is still in use today. [ ... ] It appears that the OLDEST USE OF THE DRUMS by the Karen was to accompany the protracted FUNERAL RITUALS performed for important individuals. The drums were PLAYED during the various funeral events and then, among some groups, small BITS OF THE DRUM WERE CUT AWAY AND PLACED IN THE HAND OF THE DECEASED to accompany the spirit into the afterlife. It appears that the drums were never used as containers for secondary burial because there is no instance where Type III drums have been unearthed or found with human remains inside.
http://www.seasite.niu.edu/burmese/Cooler/Chapter_1/Chapter_...

The Dong Son culture is linked to the Tibeto-Burman culture, the Dai culture in Yunnan and Laos, the Mon-Khmer cultures and the culture associated with the ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dong_Son_culture

The Dong Son culture is a Bronze age culture including all of southeast Asia and into the Indo-Malaya Archipelago from about 1000 to 1 BC.
archaeology.about.com/od/dterms/g/dongson.htm


--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 5 hrs (2008-08-12 06:22:49 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

And here was me thinking the sound of drums was "boom" and only bells went "dong".

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 5 hrs (2008-08-12 06:27:10 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Variants on the lost-wax process of bronze casting practiced in the Dong-Son culture are also prevalent among the AUSTRO- Asiatic peoples of INDIA; ...
books.google.com/books?isbn=081221336X...

When you say "aboriginal", you don't mean "Australian aboriginal" do you? They didn't have any metal technology, did they?