Estimated to date from the late Iron Age, the bell is a rare object of its genre and since 1949 has been part of the British Museum's Asian Collections.

[3] The Klang Bell has a high, narrow body crowned by a cup-like lid and was designed to be worn by an elephant.

[2] The entire bell is decorated with vertical bands of rectangles composed of double spirals with central eyes motifs.

In the lower part of the bell, three irregularly fashioned rows lie above a plain band.

The bell is decorated in a similar way to the Dong Son drums that were produced in large quantities in Vietnam and elsewhere in southeast Asia between 600 BC and the third century AD, and are some of the region's finest examples of metalworking from this period.