Tibetan Singing Bowls for Sale

There are literally hundreds of Crystal singing bowls or Tibetan singing bowls for sale on the Internet at any one point. These singing bowls range significantly in price, quality, and origin, and it’s important that you know what you’re getting when you buy one. Otherwise, you may either be disappointed by an inferior product, or spend too much on an antique when a modern, manufactured bowl might have suited you better.

Singing bowls, commonly called Tibetan singing bowls or Himalayan singing bowls, have a history that stretches back at least 3,500 years, and probably further back into antiquity. They have spiritual relevance in many Eastern religions and philosophies, most commonly Buddhism. The sound they make is penetrating and quite moving, and more complex than the simple appearance would have one believe.

Singing bowls work a lot like bells, except that they sit on their base rather than being inverted. They are made out of resonating materials. Most common singing bowls are made out of copper or bronze, which are easily worked materials that can be ‘tuned’ to the right pitches and modulations by a craftsman.

Some more specialised bowls are the lesser-known crystal singing bowls. Following the same premise as the metal bowls, crystal bowls are carved from quartz or other fine crystals. Much like the fine, ringing ‘ping’ that you can get from flicking a crystal wine glass, crystal singing bowls give a high, clear tone that can be tuned to any number of different notes by the makers.

Tibetan Singing Bowls: Music

Tibetan singing bowls make, frankly, amazing sounds. They bring a sense of peace and clarity to the listener, whether one is striking or rubbing the bowl or simply enjoying its sound. Unlike gongs, which have a deeper, earthier, masculine tone to them, Tibetan singing bowls are softer and allow for a more complete resonance.

The simple act of striking a bowl and focussing one’s attention on the resulting sound, and its gentle fade into nothingness, is a powerful centering meditation exercise. When combined with a mantra or a meditation for a specific purpose, the bowls bring an immediate clarity of mind and lets you sink into deep, powerful meditation.

Tibetan singing bowls can also be used in concert with each other or other instruments for a musical effect. Properly constructed bowls are polyphonic, meaning that they resonate at several different tones simultaneously. Usually, one note or range will be more audible than the others, and this ‘major note’ is what the bowls is considered ‘tuned’ to. If you purchase multiple bowls of different sizes from the one maker, then they will usually be harmonised to sound pleasing together when struck in patterns or succession.

Just like if you play certain notes near a stretched skin, it will start to vibrate in sympathy, a well tuned set of tibetan singing bowls will have common pitches where their noises, each pure, blend together in an amazing symphony. You may have some luck if your bowls are from different makers, and purchasing bowls from the one seller is no guarantee of musical harmony, but your chances are greatly improved if you do.

Tibetan Singing Bowls: Healing

Tibetan singing bowls have been used for healing for hundreds of years. Usually combined with meditative and yogic practice, the vibrations from Tibetan singing bowls help clear the mind, wash away trouble and stress, and leave you feeling refreshed and focused.

Most meditations that use the healing power of Tibetan singing bowls focus strongly on being grounded and centred. Grounding is a common meditation technique that, despite being fairly simple in theory, can take years to master. The meditator seeks to balance their awareness of what’s going on inside their body with what’s happening in the outside world. They concentrate on their breathing, the sensation of the chair or cushion supporting them, and what their environment is presenting to them.

Crystal singing bowls, in particular, can be very helpful in attaining a deep, relaxed, meditative state. Their high, clear, pealing sound drives away other distractions and keeps the mind present. Also, the slow fading of the bowl’s sound can be rhythmic and soothing, further relaxing the meditator.

Yogic practitioners have been using singing bowls from Tibet for healing for centuries. In particular, they can be used to manipulate blockages of energies around the Chakras. Crystal singing bowls, made of quartz, can be used to cleanse and refresh all the Chakras of the body, as its white light fragments into the full color spectrum and harmonises each Chakra point individually.

Quartz Crystal Singing Bowls

Quartz crystal singing bowls have an even clearer, more piercing sound than normal singing bowls, which are usually made of brass or tin. Quartz crystal bowls can either be made mechanically, using a process similar to making crystal glasses, or more rarely they can be carved and worked by hand. The mechanically produced quartz crystal balls are perfectly fine to use, and normally are indistinguishable in quality form the hand-carved bowls.

Manufactured quartz bowls can be tuned to particular musical and vibrational frequencies. If you’re going to use your crystal singing bowls for healing meditations or practices, you can usually find them tuned to a particular note and colour of the spectrum that reflects an energetic match with a particular Chakra. Many healing practitioners use these sets of crystal singing bowls in their practices.

Quartz and other crystal singing bowls are often designed with a handle, rather than sitting flat on a cushion like a bowl. Because quartz and crystals are less malleable than copper and beaten metals, you need to be more careful with them. The quartz will shatter rather than bend!

Antique Singing Bowls?

Sourcing your bowls from Tibet, and specifically the Himalayas (which is one of the few places where they have been made in unbroken tradition), can be both challenging and expensive. Unless you visit the region yourself (and travelling to Tibet is both difficult and time-consuming), you can never be 100% sure of the authenticity of what you’re buying.

Many Tibetan monk groups travel the world, giving lectures and raising the image of the plight of the Tibetan people. They will usually sell some goods as part of funding their trips. The Gyuto Monks are an example of this. Your sense of what’s ‘genuine’ or ‘real’ should be realistic, unless your budget extends to hundreds of dollars. Question yourself – if you buy some singing bowls, blessed for you by a real, practising monk – then does the origin matter so much to you? If the bowl is made by a hard-working family in India, hammering out bowls daily, does that invalidate their effort?

Don’t let romantic ideals cloud your judgment. Nearly every singing bowl you can buy on the Internet has been manufactured outside of Tibet, probably using a mechanical process. The value from the bowls comes from what you get out of them, not how they’ve been made.

If your budget and interest extends far enough to research and verify antiques, then we wish you the best of luck. Antique singing bowls will have a well documented history and are nearly always to be found in the hands of private collections.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that you’ve uncovered an untouched antique, especially if you’re in a bazaar or market overseas. People spend an inordinate amount of time faking antiques, and the differences to an untrained or inexpert eye are indistinguishable. it may be better to leave the antiques where they are, and enjoy them at museums and displays. There are many high-quality recordings of antique singing bowls, so you can still enjoy their rich harmonics at home.

Wholesale Tibetan Singing Bowls

Most manufacturers or importers will be happy to negotiate a wholesaler or bulk discount when you buy Tibetan singing bowls. If you’re thinking about buying a larger set of Tibetan singing bowls, consider trying to find other people who might be interested and see if you can save yourself some money.

One way to find people who might be interested in combining purchasing power is through your local meditation centre. Check out community listings for places where adult education classes take place, or where you could put a notice up in an environment where people are likely to see it; i.e. at naturopaths, massage centers, yoga centres, etc. You only need 5 or 10 of you willing to chip in some money to be able to get a substantial amount off, not to mention saving on bulk shipping!

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