Kulintang is a modern term for an ancient instrumental form of music composed on a row of small, horizontally laid
gongs that function melodically, accompanied by larger, suspended gongs and
drums. As part of the larger
gong-chime culture of
Southeast Asia, kulintang music ensembles have been playing for many centuries in regions of the Eastern
Malay Archipelago—the Southern
Philippines, Eastern
Indonesia,
Eastern Malaysia,
Brunei and
Timor, although this article has a focus on the Philippine Kulintang traditions of the
Maranao and
Maguindanao peoples in particular. Kulintang evolved from a simple native signaling tradition, and developed into its present form with the incorporation of knobbed gongs from
Sunda. Its importance stems from its association with the indigenous cultures that inhabited these islands prior to the influences of
Hinduism,
Buddhism,
Islam,
Christianity or
the West, making Kulintang the most developed tradition of Southeast Asian archaic
gong-chime ensembles.
