Gungsa or gangsa are flat sided lipped gong

Gong

A gong is an East and South East Asian musical percussion instrument that takes the form of a flat metal disc which is hit with a mallet....

s classified as of the suspended type, though they are often played horizontally on the thighs. They are common in the Cordillera

Cordillera

A cordillera is an extensive chain of mountains or mountain ranges, that runs along a coastline . It comes from the Spanish word cordilla, which is a diminutive of cuerda, or "cord"...

 highlands of Luzon

Luzon

Luzon is the largest island in the Philippines. It is located in the northernmost region of the archipelago, and is also the name for one of the three primary island groups in the country centered on the Island of Luzon...

 in the northern Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

.

Most gungsa are brass

Brass

Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc; the proportions of zinc and copper can be varied to create a range of brasses with varying properties.In comparison, bronze is principally an alloy of copper and tin...

 although some more recent ones, especially from the end of the 19th century, are cast iron

Cast iron

Cast iron is derived from pig iron, and while it usually refers to gray iron, it also identifies a large group of ferrous alloys which solidify with a eutectic. The color of a fractured surface can be used to identify an alloy. White cast iron is named after its white surface when fractured, due...

. The iron ones are generally considered inferior to the "gold" ones.

Gungsa are endemic throughout the Cordilleras in Luzon, the main island of the northern Philippines. They seem to have been there for centuries, and some families still treasure family heirlooms from 8 or 9 generations ago. These parts of the Philippines were not subdued by the Spanish

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 during their four century claim over the Philippines.

Fukkien

Fujian

' , formerly romanised as Fukien or Huguing or Foukien, is a province on the southeast coast of mainland China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, and Guangdong to the south. Taiwan lies to the east, across the Taiwan Strait...

 traders appear to have been active in the Cordilleras before the Spanish imperium, and to have continued through the Spanish attempts to rule. Current thinking is the Fukkien traders brought the flat sided lipped gongs from China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 to sell to the Cordillera people who paid in gold.

Gungsa are usually found in sets of five or six, based on the pentatonic scale. They can be tuned by an expert with a hammer

Hammer

A hammer is a tool meant to deliver an impact to an object. The most common uses are for driving nails, fitting parts, forging metal and breaking up objects. Hammers are often designed for a specific purpose, and vary widely in their shape and structure. The usual features are a handle and a head,...

. Sets of eight or more are also common, but are still based on the pentatonic scale also thought to have been brought from China.

Current (2008) retail price in Baguio City

Baguio City

The City of Baguio is a highly urbanized city in northern Luzon in the Philippines. Baguio City was established by Americans in 1900 at the site of an Ibaloi village known as Kafagway...

 for a new set of five in brass is about 78,000 pesos.

The people of Mountain Province

Mountain Province

Mountain Province is a landlocked province of the Philippines in the Cordillera Administrative Region in Luzon. Its capital is Bontoc and borders, clockwise from the south, Ifugao, Benguet, Ilocos Sur, Abra, Kalinga, and Isabela.Mountain Province is sometimes incorrectly named Mountain in some...

 use gungsa during all major traditional celebrations and its use does not seem in danger of being lost. In the more remote barios of Kalinga Province, gungsa are still essential for all community celebrations, unless someone has died recently, when the gungsa remain silent.

Methods of playing gungsa vary from tribe to tribe and can be quite intricate when played by masters. Unlike the Southern Philippines, playing gongs in the Cordilleras is a male duty. Girls are often taught to play gungsa at school, alongside the boys, but do not play at community functions. They usually dance to the sound of the gungsa.