The gong is an ancient instrument from Malay. The bronze plate produces sound when struck with a padded hammer. The resonating rumble of a gong is a sound familiar to Asian and Euro-American music. The quality of the sound is affected by the size of the gong itself. It is sometimes called a tam-tam.
In Malaysian music, the gong-agengis an instrument where two gongs of slightly different pitches are suspended together. The Malaysians also use a set of small, tuned gongs, gong-chimes that are suspended in sequence to make their distinctive gamelan music.
Similar to bells, the zen bowl gong is struck with a wand to make a delicate ping. Common to Asian music, these simple gongs also come in a variety of sizes and tones.