(Sundanese lisung).
Javanese term (Sundanese: lisung), also found in Sulawesi, for a long rice-stamping trough beaten with heavy poles of coconut palm or other wood by women who make music while stamping the husks off rice grain. In Minangkabau, West Sumatra, it is called a lasuang and in Burai, South Sumatra, a cintuk. The trough is usually made of wood, such as jackfruit wood, which produces a clear tone when beaten. By striking the edges and bottom of oblong or round holes cut in the trough, sounds of varying pitch and timbre are produced in complex interlocking rhythms. In Java, these rhythms are distinguished by three stamping pressures: light, medium and heavy. The pieces are given picturesque and evocative titles. The lesung was formerly used in Java in the gamelan kethoprak. Since World War II rice-husking machines have increasingly replaced traditional methods, and round-the-clock rice-stamping parties at harvest-time, during solar and lunar eclipses and for circumcision celebrations have died out. In Minangkabau lasuang troughs often had seven holes, and seven women used to play lasuang music, but the only remnant of this tradition is the gandang lasuang ensemble, which comprises a lasuang, talempong jao and drum (e.g. a dol). In Aceh province, a small round trough resembling those of mainland South-east Asia is used by each rice-stamper. In Burai, South Sumatra, cintuk have two holes played by four women; low-pitched sounds are produced inside the holes and high-pitched ones on top of the trough.
J. Kunst: De toonkunst van Java (The Hague, 1934; Eng. trans., rev. 2/1943, enlarged 3/1973)
M.J. Kartomi: ‘Music and Trance in Central Java’, EthM, xvii (1973), 201–7
MARGARET J. KARTOMI