Sundanese goöng, 27" c1972, West Java, Indonesia

I'm a new-age kinda guy, and dragged this back from Indonesia in 1972 on a boat!  If you're as old as I am, you'll remember the '70s - the "Age of Aquarius", the mind-body-spirit connection, Eastern Mysticism, Meditation, breathwork, Eastern philosophies (like Hinduism and Buddhism, TM (transcendental meditation), EST, ISA and Ram Dass.  I still live in a hippie community in Washington, but its time to downside and part with my sound bath goöng.

If you're unfamiliar, the goöng is a metal gong idiophone of the Sundanese people of Java, Indonesia. It is the largest and lowest-pitched instrument in many types of Sundanese gamelans. 

This goöng is a remarkable product of skilled craftsmen, and was forged by a team of hammer-wielding smiths who gradually transformed a disc of bronze into the shape seen in the picture. This involved numerous cycles of heating the bronze until white-hot followed by a few minutes of hammering. The finished product is an integral vessel with a turned-in flange and a raised central boss/knob. The contouring of the face of the gong is essential to achieving a definite pitch. The goöng is hung vertically from a wooden rack with synthetic rope the ends of which run through holes punched out of the gong's flange. A heavily padded wooden stick beater is used to strike the boss of the goöng.

The goöng by itself weighs ~30 pounds, is 27" in diameter and about 4" deep