The question has come up as to whether or not singing bowls were originally food bowls. While it seems obvious that any bowl would originally be a food bowl, the real truth and history is more complicated and interesting.
What exactly were the singing bowls? They were first collection bowls, then alms bowls, then ritualized altar objects, then sound instruments. This is the general trajectory of the history until the 20th century when they began to be made in much larger numbers for export.
However, an important distinction must first be made because today many food vessels are falsely sold as singing bowls. When I say “singing bowl,” I am talking about very specific types of bowls which are known to be singing bowls. There are many other types of brass and bronze vessels and some of them are now sold as singing bowls. So, before going further, you must know whether you are looking at a singing bowl or another type of bowl. Assuming we are talking about the real singing bowls, they were not food bowls.
Antique singing bowls, as my research discovered, were based on earlier bowls from ancient Persia and Khorasan. The technology traveled along the silk roads through what was then mixed Buddhist, Hindu and Islamic territory, bringing the bowl makers’ art from present day Afghanistan, Pakistan and India to Nepal.
The earlier Persian bowls were decorative. They were not food bowls but stylized and heavily decorated. Wealthy people may have used them for special purposes or simply as decoration. Decorative bronze bowls go all the way back to Ancient Greece and certainly by this time around the 10-12th century, there was already a distinction between food bowls, storage containers, cooking pots, decorative bowls and other types of vessels like flower pots.
Singing bowls are not like food bowls, which have distinctly different shapes and are made from different materials. The bronze used in antique singing bowls was the highest quality bronze and would have been attainable only by the higher castes of these segregated cultures, including the wealthy castes and the monks. The small number of antique high-tin bronze bowls attests to this fact. General food and water vessels are found in much larger numbers. While food plates and bowls are made from a cheaper brassy material and lower tin bronze, the antique singing bowls were made from high tin bronze, a highly prized material which could be made to look like gold. The high quality craftsmanship of the antique singing bowls also points to their lavishness.
However, the antique singing bowls were not purely decorative like the Persian bowls may have been. The early singing bowls were likely donation bowls. In the regions the singing bowls come from, there was a long tradition of temple donation. Many thousands of temples were supported entirely by donations. Bowls were used for collection all the way back to the time of the historic Buddha. In cultures where people ate with their hands using leaves for plates, something as special as an engraved golden bronze bowl was a very special object, on the level of the other altar objects in the temples.
The original collection bowls were stone. Such bowls were used in the time of the historic Buddha. Over time, the bowls became larger, starting to take on a more symbolic meaning. Some stone bowls became extremely large, commensurate with the generosity of the donors.
Donations were also collected individually by monks. Buddhist monks would go out in the morning and collect food for the day. They would only eat what they collected in their bowl and the temples were supported entirely by the donations of the people. This concept of supporting by donation persists until today in meditation centers worldwide. A little known method that basically invented the singing bowl was the practice of rhythmically tapping the bowl to alert people that donations were being collected. This practice was found even in the 20th century in Korea and may still exist today. Monks there will tap on a wooden donation bowl which is specially designed to carry sound, similar to a wooden fish or woodblock. This is likely the way bronze singing bowls were used historically: the sound let people know the monk was collecting and people would then offer their donations into the bowl. This practice can also be seen in temples in Vietnam, where the monks play singing bowls rhythmically while the faithful approach and drop money into the bowl.
So is it the simple fact that singing bowls were collection vessels and begging bowls? It is likely that many singing bowls were made for these purposes and we still see them used for these purposes in the few temples that retain the traditions. However, by the time of the singing bowls, the practice of gathering alms had started to disappear. Only the southern schools, the Theravada tradition, still practiced it. One historical parallel that I find interesting is that Theravada Buddhists were expelled from Nepal around the height of the singing bowl industry. My research supports the connection between singing bowls and Theravada Buddhism, not Vajrayana (Tibetan) Buddhism as people assume. It seems singing bowls were reintroduced to Vajrayana Buddhism by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche in the 1970’s.
Therefore, while some singing bowls may have been used daily by monks, many singing bowls were made as altar objects and symbolic temple objects, no longer as practical collection vessels. By the time the singing bowls were at their height, they had taken on a more ritualized function. In Japan, temple collection bowls were replaced by wooden casks with locks due to theft. The bowls were moved inside the temple. They became symbolic and spiritual tools with ritual function as sound instruments.
In Japan we find the tradition of using two bowls: a larger and smaller bowl are almost always found. One of my discoveries with the Himalayan singing bowls is that they were also often made in pairs, supporting the same ritualized temple use. The earliest singing bowls were made in only a few sizes, indicating they had very specific function: a larger collection bowl, a medium sized altar bowl and a small sized home altar bowl are the main sizes. They were made this way historically and we still see the three main sizes made where the tradition persists, especially in Japan.
Were the singing bowls ever food bowls? There is no evidence that they were. They are not like any known type of food or drinking vessel. The shape of the bowls with an inward turned lip makes them very impractical for eating or drinking from. The rough inner rim would certainly retain food particles, however none have been found with any sort of food residue. In Nepal, the bowls are always treated with special reverence and there is no indication that they were food bowls. However, there is a lot of evidence that they were used in the context of Buddhist practice, historically as today.
As I wrote in The Singing Bowl Book, I believe the first symbolism was related to the prior use as a donation vessel. The bowl was still a symbol of donations: the larger the bowl, the wealthier the temple. The most impressive temples in Japan also have the largest singing bowls. While the early use may have been purely for collection, the beautiful sound of the bowls elevated them to a special place within the temple.
Later the bowls took on a more religious function. They are used for the offering of sound which is part of Buddhist practice. Singing bowls are placed on the lower left corner of a Buddhist altar. They are used in homes the same way, placed on the family altar and used as the sound offering during daily ancestor prayers.
The function in the Buddhist context is very clear. Some remote temples still use singing bowls as collection vessels. Monks play the bowl and practitioners drop money into the bowl. This is likely the most traditional use still practiced today. While monks’ alms bowls changed over time, at least some of the singing bowls were likely used by individual monks as alms bowls. Others were made to be placed on altars, as they are today.
Just like other objects, the function and history is not a straight line. They were used differently during different times and different contexts. However, the general use has remained consistent. There was a potentially very long period where the singing bowls were largely abandoned. During this time, people certainly could have used them as normal kitchen bowls. However, that does not seem to have happened, at least not widespread.
The bowls went into disuse and were stockpiled for years. Many other types of bowls were used instead; there are bowls to measure rice, bowls to cook alcoholic chang, cups to drink chang, bowls and plates to eat from. There are even bowls related to animal sacrifice. However, these are all distinctly different from singing bowls and singing bowls do not seem to have been used for any of these functions. They were instead left alone for us to rediscover and rekindle their greatest function as sound offering tools.
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