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GLOSSARY
For
those unfamiliar with our site, and our company, we have included a
glossary of the vernacular we have developed over the last 12 years
of our business to differentiate between the different construction
types and styles of singing bowls. The bowls’ makers were very
creative, and they spanned throughout the Himalayas over the course
of centuries. So there are so many different nuances in shape, and
intricacies in design to notice! As we have not yet found the
Tibetan, Nepali,
or Hindi terms which describe them all, we have invented names for
them in order to communicate with our customers, and each other,
about them.
Use these terms with other bowl dealers
with caution: it’s a little like walking into a Coffee Bean and Tea
Leaf and asking for a Venti Cappucino! If you know of any other
information on any of these types, their indigenous names or
provenance, please contact us. We’d love to hear from you. |
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Master-quality® The Tibetan Singing Bowls offered by
Bodhisattva Trading Co., Inc., are antiques from the Himalayas of
Nepal and Tibet, and are between 100 and 500 years old. Each special
bowl has been personally selected in the Himalayas by Tibetan
musicologist and recording artist Rain Gray who has been collecting,
researching and recording Tibetan Singing Bowls for over 30 years.
Our Tibetan Singing Bowls are
Master-quality®, meaning they have passed our stringent quality
control standards for:
- Beauty of harmonic balance
- Ease and smoothness of playing
- Volume
- Long lasting sustain
- Authentic age
Of the tens of thousands of bowls we test
each year in the Himalayas, only half of a percent (0.005%) achieves
this standard. |
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Double-blue Quality
Double-blues are the "Stradivarius" of singing
bowls - the best of the best! Of the five criteria for
Master-quality®, Double-blues
surpass the rest of the collection in multiple criteria. Their
sublime tones form palpable matrices in the air, and linger
significantly longer than most singing bowls. The implications of a
longer sustain in a healing or meditation context is key, because of
the increased "mileage" you get from every strike or rim tone. Also
important is the characteristically deeper penetration potential of
these powerful pieces. They represent the top half of a percentage
in quality of OUR collection. Double-blues
can be purchased as stand alone pieces, and are the most requested
material of Master-Healing Set collectors worldwide. |
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Thadobati
- Nepali term for a
medium sized, (6" to 8+") bowl in which the walls are proportionately
higher to the diameter than the Manipuri, or Low-wall style. This
umbrella term includes the Buddha, Karma, Dharma, Special,
Void, Void-Yoni, Bodhi and Mani styles. We almost never use this term because
it’s too general and not very descriptive. |
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Jambati
-
Nepali term for a
larger diameter, (8" - 14+") bowl in which the walls are
proportionately higher to the diameter than the Manipuri, or
Low-wall style. These are the largest and deepest sounding of all
the Tibetan singing bowls. Fundamental tones can range from the second to the
third octave of a piano. The rim tones can spread into the fifth
octave. |
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Manipuri
-
Said to come from the Manipur region (in the eastern Himalayas near
Nagaland), but this shape is also
typically Tibetan as well. Their walls are lower in ratio to the
diameter, with a gradually sloping base. Typically, they range from
approximately 4 up to 10 inches, and their tones, likewise, range
from the second to fifth octaves. |
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Low-wall
-
A thinner constructed Low-wall Manipuri bowl. |
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Low-wall-thick-lip
-
A Manipuri bowl with a thicker construction and a triangulated lip.
Sometimes these are decorated with sacred geometric patterns (see Void
description). |
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High-wall
-
See "Jambati". |
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Buddha
–
A medium sized (6" – 8") Thadobati variety singing bowl. The base, while still
round, is not as sloped as a High-wall. We named this style after
the Buddha because one of the earliest depictions of the Buddha, a 1st
century BCE stone bas-relief from the Ghandaran period, features the
Buddha holding a bowl of this shape. This theme, called "The Offering of the
Four Bowls", was also found in a later, 2nd - 3rd century CE bas-relief
(see photo at right) as
well. The provenance of this shape
generally tends to come from India. |
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Karma
-
A medium sized (6" - 8") Thadobati bowl. Similar to the Buddha type
bowl but with side walls that are less rounded and with a bottom
which is more flat. Also many have vertical hash marks on the upper
exterior walls. |
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Tara -
Another "cousin" of the Buddha type (Thadobati) bowl, it's body is
deeper and rounder giving it a more feminine feel-- hence the name.
Medium sized (6" - 8"). |
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Special
–
Extra thick construction, Buddha shape, but generally with a a
rounder wall. Usually features heavy sacred
geometric parallel lines incised or cast into the
exterior walls, and orbiting out from a small circle in the center
of the basin. The
lip is distinctly grooved. |
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Void
–
An enigmatic, premium quality bowl with geometric design patterns
and construction which were made with remarkable consistency from
the 15th through the 19th Centuries. They
feature a ribbon of dots surrounded by small circles on the exterior
wall under the lip. This was an ancient, sacred geometric symbol. It
was first seen in astrology as the Sun sign. It represented "the one
becoming aware of his or her source"*. In a Himalayan, or Tibetan
Buddhist context, we believe this symbol represented recognition of
the Void – known in Buddhism as the doctrine of dependent
origination. Each individual is inseparable from the All. The
dot is the contracted circle; the circle is the expanded dot: as
above, so below.
A pattern of concentric circles frame the
ribbon, and also appear half way down the exterior wall. Another set
of concentric circles orbit out from a small circle in the center of
the basin. The patterns of concentric circles were a represented the
infinite expansion of vibration into the Universe**. These markings
actually depicted the function of the singing bowls: showing wave
patterns emanating outward, they remind seekers throughout time that
the vibration of our thoughts, words and deeds resonate infinitely
out into the Universe.
All Voids have a "pie-lip" construction, a
primitive technique we first observed in 10th Century
bowl construction. In the forging process, the metal was folded over
and then the excess rim trimmed off, rather than simply being sheared off
at the
top. |
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Void-Yoni – We believe these
special bowls may have been intended as the female counterparts to
the Voids. They are identical in construction, but also feature
three dot/circle patterns forming a downward-facing triangle, placed
in four locations around the bowl’s exterior wall. In the
Tantric traditions which were practiced in the Himalayas during this
time, downward facing triangles represented the "Yoni", or female
principle. The repetition of this pattern in sets of four around the
bowl may refer to the four vectors: North, East, South, West. These
may also refer to the four directions of Tibetan Buddhist ritual
practices. Rarely, there will only be three sets: the fourth
triangle must be invisibly traced between the three physical
locations to form the fourth triangle. |
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Bodhi
–
A medium sized (6" – 8") Thadobati variety singing bowl.
It's distinguishing characteristic is its outwardly turned lip. When this type was first discovered
it reminded us of the spreading
branches of the Bodhi tree-- hence the name.
Usually thick to XX-thick in construction. |
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Dharma - Typically light
construction, with slightly concave aperture and a generous belly.
Multiple parallel line patterns are lathed around the exterior wall.
Often, a dot-line inscriptions will appear approximately half an
inch below the rim on the exterior wall. These bowls may have been
partially cast as well as forged. Usually, a set of concentric
circles orbit out from a small circle in the center of the
basin. The lip is usually grooved. |
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Cup-bowl -
A smaller diameter, cup-shaped Tadobati
variety Tibetan singing bowl. Highly portable, good for use on
smaller alters, and also for healing professionals as they can
easily be placed on the brow to activate the 3rd eye chakra and/ or
pineal gland when the bowl has an A tone. Also, due to the smaller
sizes they produce higher octaves which fill in this part of the
scale when being used in musical compositions.
Diameters range from just under 4 inches up to 6 inches. |
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Lotus -
A more globular type of singing bowl with usually thin and high
walls. Like the Lingam type bowls, they also have an area in the
bottom interior basin which has been forged to produce an upward
pointing protrusion. Sizes range from below 6" to around 8+". Due to
the relatively thin walls many of this type of bowl produce deep
struck tones. |
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Stem - A type of relatively rare
singing bowl which has a raised ring attached (usually soldered) to
the outside bottom of the bowl. This ring is useful as a grip when
the bowl is used in sound healing applications as the bowl can be
waived around various parts the patients body more easily.
Stylistically, a comparison can be made to the porcelain stem cups
used by Tibetan nobility, although these have a longer stem. |
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Mani -
This means "jewel" in Tibetan, although we believe the style hails
originally from India. We started finding these only in the last
four - five years. They are the only example that we know of which
is a conically shaped, self amplifying singing bowl. They tend to
produce an almost pure sine wave, and their rim tone and fundamental
tone are the same. Sometimes, higher harmonics can be heard in the struck
tones, but they tend to be octaves rather than tritones. |
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Lingam bowl -
Perhaps the rarest of all the Tibetan/Himalayan type singing bowls,
this type has a conical protrusion coming out of the center of the
bowl's interior basin. The term "Lingam" comes from the Sanskrit
terms for “phallus”. The Lingam has been worshipped by Shaivite
Hindus as the formless aspect of God for millennia. In the Buddhist,
Bon, Hindu, and Jain traditions this protrusion and accompanying
multiple ring lines is also symbolic of Mt. Kailash and the practice
of circumambulating this most sacred mountain in western Tibet. |
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** Atala
Dorothy Toy, Explorations in Consciousness, © 2001. Reprinted
with permission. |
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