Tongkaling

Group: B'laan

A Tongkaling with a particular design

Tongkaling, bronze bells, on a dance girdle

Classification

Idiophones, pellet bells or crotal bells

Description

Brass bells, used as an amulet or as a musical instrument. In the picture fourteen brass bells are fixed to a metal girdle. Nine of these bells have a particular design (a tiger's face). The girdle with tongkaling is used during the performance of a dance around a logdrum (the 'udul; 'u' pronounced as in 'enough') on which the woman with the two beaters plays a steady rhythm and the dancer plays complex syncopic rhythms interlocking with the sound of the two beaters.

Photo copyright: F. de Jager, courtesy Philippine
Council for Living Traditions

For an extensive report on these bells with a tiger's face and their use, see the website on tiger bells.

Local names

Tongkaling: larger brass pellet bells
Gurung-gurung: smaller brass pellet bells

Remarks

Ethnic group: B'laan
Location: SE Mindanao

Similar instruments (both with and without the face-like design) are used by:
- Bagobo, SE Mindanao,
- Kalagan, SE Mindanao,
- Tagbanwa, Palawan,
- Muslim groups, Muslim south, and other groups.