Yesterday, having dinner at a friends house, I was talking about my never ending love for this mystical musical object, our glorious Tibetan singing bowl, when I found out how few did I knew about it, in practical. Sure I know the composition, the form, the esthetical look…I have many, I have books about them, I go to galleries to look at ancient Tibetan singing bowls…but some practical knowledge in actually “handling” The singing bowls is lacking.

Yes, I do own a few Tibetan singing bowls, many hand-crafted in Tibet itself, and many which are replicas of ancient ones. I even have a few crystal Tibetan singing bowls in my collection. But I do NOT KNOW HOW TO USE THEM PROPPERLY!!!

I felt so ridiculous, going on and on about the objects, and their endless mysteries, and how the arrived to Tibet from India and etc, but when the daughter of my friend asked me to play a little for her.... :

"Please auntie, go get your Tibetan Singing Bowls and put them to sing a little for us."

This was when I decided I had to learn how to play them!! It could not be any other way …my pride does not allow me to keep with this tremendous gap in my education!! Hehe

So, as off now, I am on a quest to find the best Tibetan singing bowl master I can;

I will keep you posted on my journey to finally learn hot to play this instrument. I have already checked out a few online schools that will provide you with video tutorials- this can be an hypothesis for me, since I already have a lot of contact with the Tibetan singing bowls, I think I might pull this all right....We’ll see.

If you or anyone you know has learned how to reasonably play the Tibetan singing bowls on an online school, please do let me know.

Historians believe the most ancient Tibetan Singing Bowls to have appeared around 2.500 years ago. There is not much written data about their manufacturing in the old days to make it possible for us to know exactly the age of the ancient art of the making of Tibetan Singing Bowls – the records state that Tibetan Singing Bowls have been around from the 8^th Century AD.

Luckily for us, Indians have a very strong oral tradition and with all their beautiful lore love have managed to pass around stories which relate to the usage of the singing bowls. Those stories also teach us that the singing bowls arrived to Tibet, from India, just around the same time the Buddhist master Padmasambhava, introduced Buddhism to the country. - In Tibet they perfected the art and gave way to the famous Tibetan Singing Bowls.

The Tibetan Singing Bowls have a striking curiosity around them- no matter how hard modern manufacturers try, they have not yet been able to emulate the fabrication and the mysterious sounds of the ancient singing bowls. Thus, the fabrication of the original Tibetan singing bowl is considered a lost art!

Aside from the well know 12 different metals, used in the fabrication of the Tibetan singing bowls, lore tells that in some ancient bowls, metals taken from meteorites could be found.

Tibetan Singing Bowls are basically simple metal bowls. What makes a tibetan singing bowl special is the sound it can produce - its wonderfull and unique sound, whihc is so soothing that the tibetan sining bowls are often called of the voice of the gods. This varies according to materials and design, you can buy deep tone tibetan singing bowls or one with a higher tone according to taste.

"The bowl - which is usually between 5" and 13" in diameter - "sings" by resonating in much the same way as a glass does when you run a finger carefully around the rim. The bowl is usually played with a wooden mallet that is run around the outside. It can also be struck to produce a bell like sound." in WYRDOLOGY

Antique tibetan singing bowls were usually simple and practial in design and rarely have more decoration than a few lines and circles. Modern versions of the tibetan singing bowls often have more representational artwork, usually tibetan motifs.

I just came accross those two tips on playing tibetan sining bowls, I thouhgt you might find it usefull.

#There are two basic ways of playing a singing bowl. Resting the bowl upon the palm of your hand, you can either strike it with a mallet for percussive pulsating tones or you can rub around the edge with the wooden wand (puja) for a sustained effect. The pressure that you use to apply the wand onto the rim of the bowl will affect the sounds the bowl produces as also the speed with which you rotate the wand. Too much or too little pressure or the wrong speed will cause a rattling sound that most people dislike.#

Just another tip on learning the tricky art of playing the tibetan singing bowls :)

Hre is a video I found on youtube, it is delightfull. Hope you enjoy the mellodies of those enchanting tibetan singing bowls.

It is known that tibetan singing bowls have often been described as being feminine, while the wand is masculine. Together they combine a powerfull soothing sound which, with their healing qualities, make the tibetan singing bowls much more than a musical instrument.
Bellow are listed a few of their qualities:

- They relax body , mind and soul
- They make your mind, heart and body more balanced and awake

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