I managed to finish the gong with a village that did not purchase Level 2 or 3 farming, but that one only had a population of 5: it took a while, but they did it.

That was a problem village, though -- lost the women and children early to famine, so much of the early building was by the 3 original men. A girl came via an island event, but she gave birth to only daughters. Those 5 women finished the remaining necessary tech and gathered all the gong pieces (farming not being necessary to get gong pieces, they didn't bother with it).

-- jen