Cambodia · Metalwork / Musical Instrument Making
គង់ (Kong)
The Jarai people of Ratanakiri Province maintain a bronze gong casting and tuning tradition closely related to the Vietnamese Central Highlands gong traditions (shared cultural heritage across the Cambodia-Vietnam border). Jarai gongs are cast in sets (bong lu — gong family) of 6–9 individual gongs of different sizes, each tuned to a specific pitch in the Jarai pentatonic scale. Unlike Vietnamese gong traditions where gongs are tuned primarily by cold-hammering after casting, the Jarai tradition relies more heavily on sand mold adjustment to determine the initial pitch — the mold's depth and diameter are calibrated to produce a target pitch range, with only minor cold-hammering fine-tuning afterward. The mold-to-pitch calculation system — held in oral memory as ratio relationships between gong diameter and expected pitch — is the primary tacit knowledge.
Risk level: Critically Endangered · Related to UNESCO-inscribed Vietnamese Gong Culture (2005); Cambodia national ICH list
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