Drum-Making Village

This Pa Mok district village has made Thai drums by hand since 1927, when local musician Poem Phupradit — who had played music in the royal palace — started building them here. Nearly a hundred years on, more than 40 households in Ekkarat subdistrict still work as professional drum makers, and visiting means walking past open workshops where the whole process is visible: wood carving, hide stretching, and tuning.

The drums start as rain tree wood, prized here for how easily it shapes and steams into a curved shell, and finish with cow-hide heads pulled taut and laced or nailed into place. Workshops turn out the full spectrum of Thai percussion — klong yao (the long parade drums seen at festival processions), klong ram wong for folk dance, temple drums, and Mon-style ceremonial drums — plus orders for taiko drums bound for Japan, janggu for Korea, and djembe-style drums for African buyers. The village has become known well beyond Ang Thong for the quality of that export work.

Insider Tip: Look for the giant drum standing outside one of the village houses — built from six joined pieces of rain tree wood, with a head around 92 centimetres (36 inches) across and a body stretching roughly 7.6 metres. It’s one of the largest Thai drums on public display and a natural photo stop before or after watching the craftsmen work.

Visits are informal — there’s no ticket booth or set tour route, just workshops along the village lanes where makers are usually happy to have visitors watch, and sometimes to explain the steaming and lacing process. Dress modestly and ask before photographing people directly, as this is a working residential village rather than a museum.

The village sits in Ang Thong province’s Pa Mok district, a short drive from other Pa Mok craft and heritage stops — Wat Pa Mok Worawihan, known for its long reclining Buddha, and the Ban Bang Sadet Court Dolls Center, another local handicraft village. Early morning or late afternoon avoids the day’s heat and catches the workshops at their most active.