The Fascinating World of Tibetan Singing Bowls
A Singing bowl, by its' name itself, is something mystical and magical. It’s amazing to know that they are being used since centuries and not just for entertainment purpose either. The element of sound produced from these Tibetan singing bowls is used to increase our positive vibrations.
Singing Bowls can be described marvellously and beautifully. It can be described as an antiquity made from earthly material which produces a rich chime out of its emptiness. It’s is so timeless and powerful that it can heal and bring peace to a person from deep within.
Tibetan Singing Bowl
In concurrence with its mystical properties, the origin of Tibetan Singing Bowl is also difficult to ascertain though as per the name, it seems it was developed in Tibet. It has been in vogue for centuries, practiced mainly by Buddhist Monks for meditation.
The fundamental principle of these bowls is that they harmonise the frequencies of our body. They also known as Himalayan Bowls are widely been used in the Himalayan regions of India, Nepal and Tibet. Singing bowls for meditation helps in reducing stress, relaxing the mind, and most importantly, guiding the practitioner to the ultimate enlightenment.
Different Names of Singing Bowls
Singing bowls are known by various names. They are also commonly known as Standing Bells and are addressed with other versatile terms too. Each name has its own meaning. Some of the terms or names are prayer bowls, resting bowls, Himalayan bowls, Tibetan bowls, Rin Gong, Meditation Bowl, and Buddha bowls.
These Tibetan bowls produce a musical sound that generates energy and helps in healing. It also contributes in getting relief from stress, depression and pain.
Brief History of Singing Bowl
It’s difficult to find concrete evidence regarding the origin and use of the Tibetan singing bowl. However, some say that it was discovered earliest in China during the Shang dynasty. Though, it is sometimes stated that these bowls date back to the pre- Buddha period, the historical records have no indication towards the actuality of this statement.
Now the question is - Singing Bowl Used for?
As said, Singing Bowls are used for versatile purposes, such as;
- Healing Purpose
- Meditation Purpose
- Awakening chakras
- Music
- Religious Purpose
- Feng Shui
Singing Bowls - Music Beyond Ears.
Music is a therapy. It is nothing but a harmonious blend of sound waves entering our ear and soothing our minds. All that requires producing a good music is an artistic source and a medium to travel to us. And it was very well understood by the ancient civilizations of Himalayan regions of India, Tibet, and other eastern parts of Asia. They developed the trick to produce positive vibrations from metallic bowls. These bowls became popular as Singing Bowls.
In general, these are bowl-shaped with sizes ranging from few centimetres to a meter in diameter. This Nepali singing bowl produces sound that calms our mind and fills us with positive energy.
Standing bells are majorly associated with Buddhist chanting and meditation. These prayer bowls are used for various religious and healing purposes. Sound Therapy is another popular healing process that's becoming quite popular these days. It is believed that it works on balancing our chakras. These mediation singing bowls for school classroom also help us relax and stay focused.
People also use Himalayan bowls to clear bad or negative energies and keep positive energies flowing. Singing bowls have become a significant object in Feng Shui too.
How to Use Singing Bowl?
- Using Singing Bowl
These resting bowls or standing bells are substantially made from various metals. It is mentioned that it was traditionally made from an alloy of gold, copper, silver, iron and tin. We can also find crystal bowls that are made from crushed crystals.
It is said that the seven metals were used to make singing bowls. Each metal had a planetary association. Gold was made for Sun, Silver was for Moon, Mercury was for Mercury, Iron was for Mars, Copper was used for Venus, Tin was used for Jupiter and Lead was used for Saturn.
No matter which singing bowl your pick or use, it will lead you on a mystical and marvellous voyage of sound. As you continuously play it, the sound will get more unique and yet with each change of pitch, it will be more familiar to you.
There are two ways to play a singing bowl.
- Striking: strike the singing bowl with a mallet. It creates a bell like sound.
- Rubbing: Take your mallet and rub the wooden stick on the bowls' rims. It will create continuous musical tunes.
To produce continual and unbroken sound, there are some specific postures and ways to do it. Firstly, one must sit with a flat and straight back. Once comfortable sitting position is attained, hold a soft small mat on your palm and keep the resting bowl near the chest over the soft mat. One can also position the bowl as per their comfort.
Once everything is in place and you're comfortable, strike mallet on the resting bowl. The released sound will begin with some lower tones and you will feel the waves of the alluring sound as it flows and passes through your entire body. The tunes will resonate on the chest and continue towards the whole body.
This will take one to a deep state of relaxation. It will continue to produce sound. However it’s important to continuously repeat the action of striking or rubbing for uninterrupted waves of the tunes.
Striking the mallet will resonate the sound and rubbing it will help the sound escalate. Hold mallet or wooden stick vertically on the upper end and rub from the bottom end on the rims of the meditation bowl. One can use hard wood or soft wood. But, using hardwood tends to bring smoother sounds. It’s very important to press the mallet firmly to the rim to avoid any rattling sound.
While practicing the action, various tones will be produced and will mingle. Continuous repetition will allow one note to rise above the sound, due to which other sound will fall. Eventually, only one note is left with a pure ring and music.
How to play the singing bowl?
- Hold the base of the singing bowl on your finger tips on the palm of your hand. Make sure that you do not touch the sides of the bowl as it may affect the vibrations
- Tilt the bowl slightly towards you. It will help you to move your hand around the bowl more easily
- Hold the mallet with the top with your fingertips pointing downwards
- Strike the mallet gently against the side
- When playing with it keep your wrist straight, let your arm do the work
- Now, keep the bowl playing at constant speed and even pressure and when the bowl is too fast you will hear some friction between the bowl
- Once finished, remove the mallet from the side of the bowl
Some more techniques of playing a Singing Bowl
The bowl is generally held on the left hand and the mallet in the right hand. In order to produce vibrations, the bowl is gently tapped and the mallet is moved clockwise with equal application of pressure. This is known as the “Around-the-Rim” technique.
There is an advanced way of practicing it, known as “The Wah-Wah” technique in which the bowl is brought near the mouth of the practitioner to let the sound produced by the Around-the-Rim technique to bounce inside the mouth cavity while thinking of the sound wah-wah and changing the opening of the mouth.
At Best Himalaya, we have a large collection and range of beautiful singing bowls that you can choose from.
Here are some of the facts about Tibetan Singing Bowls –
- Studies showed that brain wave changes when listening to the calming sound singing bowls used for meditation also
- The metals used to fabricate these bowls differ from religion to religion. For Buddhist, there are up to 12 different metals used, as copper been the primary ingredient. Other religion uses more exotic materials like gold & silver.
- They date far as back as 3000 years still there is no traditional literature that covers detail about the bowl
- Copper is considered as one of the purest sounds producing metal in the bowl
- Crystal Singing Bowls produces higher pitched sounds that have a different effect on the nervous system as compared to other singing bowls
- Traditionally, they are been produced by a method known as hand hammering, melding pieces completely done by hand
Singing bowl into daily practice adds a positive energy to your life. They have a myriad of benefits. Following shows the reason why to use them in daily practice.
- It gives mental clarity
- It calms the central nervous system
- Helps in improving concentration
- Deeper connection to your chakra system as well as inspiring inspirational vibrations to your body
It’s good to give a try for those who knows what kind of emotions & reactions lay in wait that you are yet to feel.
How singing bowl for School Classroom is Helpful for Children?
At the beginning of the class, it is difficult to get children cooperation in the exact manner you want. It is important to get your child focus on a particular activity that brings lots of benefits. Singing bowl when played at a certain frequency helps to cultivate mental focus, presence and calm.
Following is the simple procedure of singing bowl for children-
- Place the singing bowl on the stomach of your child and ring it softly
- Ask them to listen to the sound and feel the vibrations
- Also give them a turn to play the bowl so that they can explore the sound by themselves
This practice is more effective if the child often do it over again and again with closed eyes which will be more relaxing for them
How Using a Singing Bowl Can Change Your Life?
Most of the health practitioners recommend using singing bowl due to its various health benefits. In ayurvedic, it is been considered that illness is caused by disharmony within the body. They create vibrations that make the left and right side of the brain to synchronize emitting alpha and theta brain waves in synchronicity by vibrations emanating from singing bowl. This synchronization helps you to enter into deep meditate states receiving intuitive messages and engage in creative thinking.
Daily practice helps in changing your life by benefiting the body by reducing stress, inhibiting pain, positively affecting nervous and immune system, combating depression and balancing the chakras.
Tibetan Singing Bowl - A source of Mental Peace
Our body is regulated by our mind. Once we know the technique to tranquilize the mind, the key to mental peace and overall well-being will be at our command. From recent scientific researches, it is known that the key lies in Theta Brain Waves generated inside the brain. The sound produced by a Singing Bowl is the key to tap these waves and unravel the potential of self-healing.
Healing Effect of Singing Bowl
Gloomy moods, depression and anxiety can lead to increase in physical and psychological illness. Many studies have discovered that sound meditation can have healing effect on peoples' mood. It has also been found that the sounds of these bowls aid in getting relief from anxiety, depression, stress, pain and helps one achieve spiritual well-being.
These studies and researches were conducted on people who were naïve about such meditation. But, these people eventually realised the healing and relaxing effect of the sound and came to acknowledge it as a truly blissful and beneficial approach to mental wellness.
Sound healing can be performed with voice like chanting of mantras or by playing the singing bowl. Another way to do it is with musical instruments like flute, drums, singing bowl, santoor and others.
- Using Sound for Healing
Singing bowl plays a prominent role in the chronicle of sound healing and meditation. It is said and assumed that cell imbalances cause illness and other diseases. The sound energy produced from singing bowls connect healing vibrations with the body's' nervous system. One can only understand the healing power of a singing bowl, when they experience it themselves. Until then, the knowledge will just be limited and the mystical feeling of it will remain unknown.
How the singing bowl therapy actually works?
Singing Bowls are used as a part of therapeutic regime for relieving of stress like post traumatic stress disorder. This help to reconnect the heart energies that gives complete sound healing. There are also different modern ways of using singing bowl i.e. a sound bath. Studies showed that the tone of the Tibetan singing bowl also helps to improve the memory, mental clarity and power of concentration.
Tibetan Singing Bowls are also helpful in healing of Parkinson’s disease. Generally a healthy body vibrates at around 68-72 mhz. When you are not well or diseased it goes down to 60 mhz or lower. Sound Healing with help of bowl is useful in healing of Parkinson’s disease. When using it for this types of disease it helps to stop in drooling, eyes starts moving and also feels better. This is all because of the frequency our body needs is been achieved . By using this, it increases the vibration in your body and makes you feel much better. You just have to slightly strike the mallet. Roll the mallet around the singing bowl, keep it near your left ear hear it for some time and similarly hear it on the right ear. This will basically help to balance your right and left hemisphere.
- To Balance Chakras
There are 7 chakras of healing namely, Root Chakras, Navel Chakras, Solar Chakras, Heart Chakras, Throat Chakras, Third Eye Chakras, and Crown Chakras. As we are connected with the earth, the first vibration that we feel is from the root level. Then it slowly moves upwards and passes through multiple chakras until the vibration is felt at the highest chakra called Crown Chakra.
To balance the chakras, it is important to be aware about the chakras that need balancing. This knowledge can be attained through meditation. When one understands the chakras, they can then use specific chakra bowls to correct the unbalanced chakra.
Strike the rim or rub the striker around the bowls' rim until desired sound is produced. While feeling the mystical sound, visualize the energy within the body starting from the root chakra, as the bowl plays. One can also envision the healing energy of a specific chakra and imagine warmth and love pouring out from it.
Inner Massage
The vibration created by the Singing Bowl makes the practitioner feel relaxed as his heartbeat is smoothened by the synchronization of waves generated by the bell and that of the brain. This further triggers the healing of wear and tear inside our tissues. Moreover, it is believed that the sound energy transmitted by this resonates with frequency of the chakra and helps in regulating it.
Our body is regulated by seven chakras and for the healthy functioning of our organs it is required that all the chakras work healthily. The sound produced by the bowl takes care of that. It is also known as Sound Massage as while the healing process; the practitioner places the bowl on the receiver’s body. The vibrations so produced activate or balances the body’s chakras.
- Why Singing Bowl is Used as Prayer Bowl?
It is a great belief from ancient time that singing bowl fetches good fortune. For years Tibetian Monk and priest had been using it in a unique way sitting on knee and pray to achieve peace, prosperity and happiness for the people who really deserve and this is also one of the reasons that these bowls were called as prayer bowls.
- Life Lessons from Singing Bowl
It might sound astonishing but we can learn and apply lessons from a singing bowl to our daily lives. We have seen its benefits and healing powers but think about what we can implement in our lives with the help of these bowls.
- It’s important to hold singing bowl lightly so it produces marvellous sound. If held tightly, it won’t sing. This denotes that anything in life that is held tightly won’t produce the desired outcome whether it’s career, relationships, goals and anything. Loosen the grip and see the beautiful results.
- When one is rubbing the mallet, it has to be consistent to produce the unique sound. Similarly, in life we have to be consistent in whatever endeavour we take. If one is consistent in whatever goals they set out to conquer, it can be achieved.
- To produce mystifying sounds with the bowl, one requires patience and consistency. Similarly, one has to be patient to find the true objective and path to reach their goals in life too.
These are a few from the many lessons that we can learn from a singing bowl. It has a prominent impact on people's life physically, emotionally and psychologically. It is a beautiful one of a kind creation.
It is rightly said that singing bowl creates sound and sound is nothing but vibration. The vibration created from the sound , not only gets heard to our ears but gets touched to every cell in our body. Sound deeply touches and transforms us on the emotional & spiritual planes. Hence, it plays a positive role in the treatment of every level of physiological functioning and other medical disorder.
Tips on Purchasing
The sole tip that you can keep in mind while purchasing a Singing Bowl is to identify the most soothing sound that your mind can receive and let yourself fall in love with the vibrations transmitted by the bowl. Always select the size and colour that you fall in love instantly.
They have been in used for centuries in India, Nepal, and Tibet etc. In last couple of decades, its popularity has grown manifold in the countries like USA, UK, Canada, Germany etc.
Regular practice with the bowl helps in improving the life as it reduces stress, calms our mind, and mitigates pain and depression. In addition, it strengthens the nervous and immune system, and balances the chakras.
Buy Singing Bowl from Best Himalaya
At Best Himalaya we have a collection of exclusive handcrafted treasures that has both musical as well as mystical impact on the user's life. We have an exclusive range of singing bowls prepared with precision and dedication. Our wide range are here for you to cherry pick the right one as per your need.
Tibetan Singing Bowls, often called simply 'singing bowls', have been used for centuries for meditation, healing, and religious practices. These ancient instruments produce a captivating sound that resonates deeply within the soul, creating an atmosphere of tranquility and peace. But what exactly are Tibetan Singing Bowls, and how do they work?
The history of Tibetan Singing Bowls is as rich and enigmatic as the sound they produce. These bowls are believed to have originated in the Himalayan region over 2,000 years ago, and have been used by monks for spiritual ceremonies and sound healing practices. The bowls are typically crafted from a mixture of seven metals, each representing different planetary influences. When played, they produce a harmonic overtone that is said to align and balance the body's chakras.
Using a Tibetan Singing Bowl involves striking or rubbing the bowl's rim with a mallet, which causes the metal to vibrate and produce sound waves. These sounds can vary depending on the size and material of the bowl, but they almost always create a sense of calm. In traditional Tibetan culture, singing bowls are used in various ways: for meditation to help focus the mind, in healing practices to reduce stress and pain, and during spiritual rituals to enhance spiritual growth and awareness.
The benefits of Tibetan Singing Bowls extend beyond spiritual practices; they are increasingly being used in modern wellness practices too. Many people use these bowls for sound therapy, aiming to harness their vibrations for healing the body and mind. Research suggests that the sounds of the bowl can lower blood pressure, reduce anxiety, and promote deep relaxation. Some therapists incorporate singing bowls into massage sessions to help release tension and enhance overall wellbeing.
If you're considering adding a Tibetan Singing Bowl to your wellness routine, it's important to know how to choose the right one. Factors to consider include the size of the bowl, the quality of the sound it produces, and what you intend to use it for. Smaller bowls tend to have higher pitched sounds, while larger bowls offer deeper tones. It's also beneficial to listen to the bowl before purchasing to ensure it resonates well with you.
In conclusion, the Tibetan Singing Bowl is more than just a musical instrument; it's a tool for healing and spiritual growth. Whether you use it for meditation, therapy, or simply to enjoy its soothing sounds, it can bring a profound sense of peace and harmony into your life. So why not explore the world of Tibetan Singing Bowls and discover how their ancient vibrations can benefit you?