Singing bowls
Singing bowls come in different qualities, which differ as much in the nature, proportion and properties of the metals making up the alloy as in the precision of the hammering and the fineness of the shaping born of the artisans’ craft.
These singing bowls are forged from seven metals, with copper as the base — alloyed with tin, iron, mercury, lead, gold and silver — each intimately bound to a planet whose energy gives the instrument its full sonic richness and vibrational depth: copper to Venus, tin to Jupiter, iron to Mars, lead to Saturn, mercury to its namesake planet, silver to the Moon and gold to the Sun.
Alongside the selection of quality metals, the art of hammering is an essential feature in the making of a bowl. Shaped at the very edge of the metal’s fragility, each bowl demands a perfect mastery of gesture to be formed without ever cracking the alloy.
This right measure reveals the bowl’s full sonic richness and ensures the longevity of its wave; for the duration of the sound and its vibrations remains one of the essential criteria for identifying the quality of a singing bowl.
While the hammering varies according to the chakra a bowl is intended for, it differs above all from one category of bowl to another. Making a Zam, Lunar, Scanner, Lingam or blown bowl differs from one instrument to the next and therefore calls for a specific know-how in each case.
This is why the artisan who shapes Lingam bowls is not the one who makes Scanner bowls: each artisan has their speciality and their category of singing bowls.
Through their depth and vibrational subtlety, singing bowls have always accompanied the practices and ceremonies of Bön shamanism. Their role is to raise the vibrational frequency of beings, places and objects, while resonating in the depths of the soul to release the memories anchored in the physical body as well as in the subtle bodies.
The exceptional craft of the artisans and master smiths
The mastery and knowledge of the artisans and master smiths guarantee the excellence of the instruments used in the trainings. Born of a close companionship with the lineages of master healers and shamans, these instruments belong to no ordinary trade: they are part of a direct transmission from lineage to lineage, preserving their full spiritual value and giving each instrument a genuine vibrational and therapeutic quality.
The market mostly offers moulded, heavily decorated bowls with an attractive finish; these are generally made of five metals, and when they do contain seven, the hammering is merely mechanical or superficial, made for trade. Produced at the expense of traditional craft, they suffer from a lack of artisanal knowledge that deprives them of any real vibrational quality and sustain.