Handpan is a term for a group of musical instruments
that are classified as a subset of the steelpan. Several handpan
makers and brands have emerged in recent years, resulting from a
growing worldwide interest in the Hang, which is an instrument
developed by the company PANArt that is based on the physical
properties of the Trinidadian steelpan, Indian ghatam, Thai gong and
Indonesian Gamelan etc.
The basic form of a handpan consists of two metal half-shells glued
together, a centre tone field (named Ding) surrounded by a circle of
at least seven tone fields on the upper side and an opening in the
bottom side (named Gu). Differences between manufacturers include the
used materials, the manufacturing processes of the raw forms, the
shaping of the tone fields and the tuning methods.