Title
Tawak
Year/Period
19th century
Object Type
Material
Technique
Dimension
Object size: 50.3 x 50.3 x 13.0 cm
Accession No.
2023-00320
Collection of
Credit Line
Gift of Mr Edmond Chin
The tawak is a form of brass gong from the Island of Borneo, namely Sarawak and Brunei. Tawak gongs are often elaborately decorated with images of mythological or sacred animals or symbolic geometric designs. This example is embellished with intricate ornamentation around its circumference, surrounding two serpentine nagas encircling the center. Tawak gongs are traditionally made using lost-wax casting techniques and they would have been used for tools of signalling and also as musical instruments.
