Instruments at the Museum

Khomok

The khomok is a tension drum of the Baul folk musicians of Bengal, also known as a khamak, anandalahari and gubgubi. It has a skin head pierced by a string, which passes through the wooden drum-shaped body to attach to a small brass handle. The khomok is played by placing the drum body under the arm and plucking the string while pulling on the brass handle, which applies tension to the string and drum head. Variations of tension on the string produce a surprising vocal-like sound. Some khomok have two strings that are played at the same time increasing both the volume and complexity of the sound.