Hand-Hammered Copper Singing Bowl

Description

The rim of a metal bowl, circled slowly with a wooden striker, releases a tone that deepens as it sustains, filling a room with sound that seems to arrive from no single direction.

Singing bowls have been used in Tibetan and Buddhist practice for centuries, appearing in ritual offerings, meditation sittings, and ceremonial contexts. The instrument’s roots are debated among scholars, with some tracing it to pre-Buddhist Bon traditions and others to metalworking practices that spread across the Himalayan region along trade routes. The bowl has remained a consistent presence in Tibetan monastic life and has in recent decades become associated with sound-based relaxation and focused attention practices worldwide.

This bowl is made from copper and shaped entirely by hand-hammering, a forming technique in which repeated mallet strikes work the metal gradually against a form. The hammering process leaves a distinctive textured surface and directly influences the bowl’s acoustic properties. Unlike machine-pressed pieces, hand-hammered bowls develop subtle tonal complexity from the small variations in wall thickness that accumulate during the making process.

The bowl is available in twelve sizes, ranging from 10 cm to 32 cm in diameter. Larger sizes produce lower fundamental tones with longer sustain; smaller sizes yield higher, brighter tones. The bowl is played by striking the rim or by running a mallet in a steady circle around its outer edge.

Tone and resonance vary between individual pieces as a result of the handmade process. Buyers selecting for a specific pitch may wish to request a sound sample before purchase.