Javanese copper alloy slit-drums (Indonesian: ketongan or kukulan) are smaller versions of the large wooden slit-drums (tong-tong) used in Indonesian villages to sound the alarm if danger threatens. They are often adorned on the body of the drum with apotropaic demonic masks known as kala (time, death, or black) heads to ward off danger. Slit-drums were also used in a ritual context and for commemorative purposes. The most common finial is a rearing serpent (naga), as in the LACMA finial, but lions (simha) and serpents attacking peacocks (mayura) are also found. A suspension ring for hanging the slit-drums is generally affixed to the finial. Slit-drums are sometimes dated by inscriptions or chronograms in the Kediri quadratic script. Published dates range from at least 1229 to 1422.
See Pauline Lunsingh Scheurleer and Marijke J. Klokke, Divine Bronze: Ancient Indonesian Bronzes from A.D. 600 to 1600 (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1988), p. 129, no. 77; Jan Fontein, The Sculpture of Indonesia (Washington: National Gallery of Art, 1990), pp. 273-274, no. 100; and Arlo Griffiths and Pauline Lunsingh Scheurleer, "Ancient Indonesian Ritual Utensils and their Inscriptions: Bells and Slitdrums, Arts Asiatiques 69:1 (2014):129-150, https://shs.hal.science/halshs-02443370/file/arasi_0004-3958_2014_num_69_1_1872.pdf
Comparable slit-drums are in the Asian art museum, San Francisco (2010.553); Metropolitan, Museum of Art, New York (1987.142.31); Museum Nasional, Jakarta (970); and Royal Tropical Institute, Wereldmuseum (formerly called the Tropenmuseum), Amsterdam (4037-1).