The towering slit gongs of northern Vanuatu are among the largest freestanding musical instruments on earth. Found primarily on Ambrym, Malakula, and neighboring islands, they are carved from the trunks of large breadfruit trees, hollowed out to create a resonating chamber with a narrow slitlike aperture. In each village, a number of gongs, comprising a sort of informal orchestra, stand on the village dancing ground. Gong orchestras are played at major social and religious events such as initiations, funerals, and dances. When playing, the musician stands in front of the gong and strikes the lip of the slit with a clublike wood beater. As the gong ensemble is played, rhythms of immense variety and complexity can be produced through the carefully coordinated actions of multiple drummers.

In addition to musical performances, slit gongs are, or were, used to communicate between villages. Under proper atmospheric conditions, their sound can carry for miles through the forest and, in rare instances, across the water to neighboring islands. A complex series of gong "languages" composed of beats and pauses enables highly specific messages to be sent rapidly to distant locations.

The present slit gong is from Fanla village on northern Ambrym Island. It was commissioned in the 1960s by the village chief, Tain Mal, who was acknowledged as its "creator," but made by Tin Mweleun, a renowned carver from a neighboring village. The gong is carved in the form of a stylized ancestor figure with large, disklike eyes and a prominent nose. The spiral motifs on the eyes are symbolic of metan galgal, the morning star. Small arms and other spiral motifs depicting sacred pig's tusks appear on either side of the face, which is surrounded by projections representing hair. The long vertical slit represents the mouth, through which the ancestor's "voice" emerges as sound whenever the gong is played.

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