A Beat Of The Ages: Traditional Drum Making In Sri Lanka On display (L-R) a Tabla, Hand Rabana, Bum madiya, Thammetama, and Geta Bera Nimal and his apprentices work in his drum shop A Bera is hollowed out The full range of drums displayed The hands and fingers seemed to work to an inner beat, to a pulse, only the drum-maker himself could hear. As wood was smoothed, leather cords tightened, and cowhide stretched, they would be periodically tested, plucked, tapped, thrummed by the fingers, searching for a quality defined by sound. Ironically, in the gloom of the small stall that doubled as a workshop, there was no music whatsoever; not even a transistor radio. The only sounds were those of the tools, the muted conversation, underlined by the tapping. Nimal Wickramasiri is an artist. And his art is the beat. Nimal is not a musician, but the drums he ...