Beginning in the late 1990's, I have assembled a representative collection of antique singing bowls, including every type I have collected and in many cases, several examples of each type. Totaling over 800 singing bowls, the museum collection represents a large percentage of the antiques I collected over the years.
In fact, I put aside many of the best examples, including many rare types that have never been seen. I searched for certain types, like the special engraved bowls, thick manipuri bowls and early low walled bowls. In the 21 years I ran Himalayan Bowls, I never sold nor displayed many of these most rare singing bowls.
Today the collection consists mostly of early singing bowls which go back 1,000 years. Singing bowls can be divided between early period and late period. The early singing bowls show a higher degree of artistry and are among the finest bronze bowls ever made in the world. The later period antiques were more crudely made, thinner and with less attention to detail. They were made in much larger numbers and the thousands of antiques that have been on the market for the last 30 years have mostly been late period antiques from the 16th - 19th century. The real history of singing bowls is much longer and The Singing Bowl Museum is the only showcase with a representative collection of all early singing bowls.
It takes time to learn the real history and discern the details between the various types of bowls. Please take some time and explore the various categories in the Museum. Each individual bowl is part of the puzzle and each contains its own description telling about the bowl and its place within the singing bowl universe.
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