This ear ornament with three protrusions from the Sa Huynh (500BCE-100CE) culture of Southern coastal Vietnam is known as ‘lingling-o’. This term originates from the Ifugao and other highland communities in the Philippines who use this type of slit ear ornament. The form is found over a wide area from Beinan in eastern Taiwan, to the Philippines, northern Borneo, and the Sulawesi Sea region of Indonesia. It is thought on the basis of these similarities that this culture could have originated in the Malay Peninsula or Borneo from where trade was conducted with the communities in Southeast Asia.
