Saturday, August 8, 2009

Find Out More About Tibetan Singing Bowls

By Danpa Nyeema

There are many religious concepts that relates ambiance to the peace of mind and soul of a person. In order to get into the thought of the Super power one need to concentrate and meditate. This can be done by using various techniques and one of the methods, which the Buddhist use for their mediation is the Tibetan Singing bowls. They are even referred to as a Himalayan Singing Bowls as it has instigated mainly from Nepal, Bhutan, Mongolia, India, China, Tibet, and Afghanistan.

The popularity of the singing bowl is expected to have spread through the trade routes. It is also believed that Buddha, Padmasambhava, may have travelled across Himalaya from India to Tibet. Historians cannot determine the exact time from when singing bowls came in practise but they were first used in India almost 3000 years ago and in Tibet 1000 years ago.

There are ample of belief and stories related behind these Tibetan singing bowls. As per one belief it was thought you be used as begging bowl and food instead of a religious practice, other belief the monasteries used it as a chalice. The smith traveler can also make these bowls by the material gathered by them in their journey all along and even the monks produced bowls. It is actually a special type of bell but it is not inverted and hanged as other bells but rather it rests on its bottom. Although there were so many uses related to this singing bowls but still it is used by the people for medication and is a blessed thing.

The singing bowls, which was used in the ancient times, was made up of seven different metals where each metal symbolizes the each planets of the solar system. The seven different metals are gold, silver, mercury, copper, tin and iron, which makes up the bowl and you can even make the bowl from the remains of the meteorites. The qualities of the sound the bowl will produce entirely depend on the different metal mixture. The metals are all taken together and it results in an alloy, which is made to cool down and finally drawn into fine shape bowls. There are many proofs, which even show that there are more than seven metals of which bowls have been made. As ancient bowl is made up of precious metals, the sound they produce is always superior to the bowls of today.

The singing bowls, which is made of a cast metal, does not possess good quality. These bowls are very smooth and an easy to play. You can get a bowl, which is made by a hand hammered method, but still the ancient bowl are heavenly. If you want to play a bowl, it is not a difficult task you can play any types of bowls within few minutes only.

How can you play the Tibetan Singing Bowls so that the sound it produces is in rhythm? You need to simply circle a stick around the outside of the Tibetan singing bowl and you can produce the rhythm. When you start circling initially, you can hear a hum but when you continue for long this humming sound increases. It does not only produce humming sound but also produce multi-phonic sounds along with multiple harmonic overtones. This is all because of the use of different alloy mixtures to make the bowl. Even the modern bowls can produce this sounds provided they are made up of good quality bronze but nowadays they use a cheap alloy to make bowls so only monophonic sound is produced .

Tibetan Singing Bowls are of great help for the one to mediate, concentrate, and think about the super power. One of the prime places of application of bowls in is yoga classes. One can play the bowl and other can listen which will create an atmosphere that soothes one ear and mind a lot. T he sound that comes out from the bell is so powerful that keep your surroundings free from the bad souls.

Singing bowls though considered Buddhist sacred belief but are wonderful to use in outside environment and at your home. These bowls are recently gaining more popularity in the west with the preaching of Buddhism and practise of yoga exercises. Singing bowls can also produce water memory effects. If you play the bowl, its multi frequency sound creates a vibration of the water surface in the rhythm of the tone being played. Tibetan singing bowls are often used as gift as a sign of grace or gratitude. Its believed to be sacred and a piece of art. It can also serve as beauty at home when used to decorate.

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