Gong

Gong (Javanese gong), percussion instrument, a bronze disk that produces sound when struck by a knobbed beater. Many gongs have a central boss, or dome, and most have a turned-down rim; they vibrate at their center. In the potlike tuned gongs of Indonesian music, the rim is deep; it is narrow in the large tam-tam, a Chinese gong of indefinite pitch that entered the Western orchestra in the 19th century. From obscure origins in the Middle East or Southeast Asia, the gong became established in Indonesia by the 9th century and reached Europe by at least the 18th century.