Raglai musician and instrument maker Pupur Viết shows off a tune on his bamboo tube zither, the chapi, in the mountains of Ninh Thuan near the South Central coast of Vietnam.. One of the characteristic instruments of the Austronesians that spread from Taiwan, to the Philippines, Indonesia, and finally all the way to Madagascar, the tube zither often features “strings” made from the skin of the bamboo itself, lifted up with little bridges.

On the chapi, six pairs of strings are joined by floating bamboo bridges which are plucked by the fingers. Just like so many tube zithers in Indonesia, the repertoire for chapi is taken from the gong ensemble, ma la, and the sound is thought to resemble that of a gong.