This is the earliest known artistic depiction of a singing bowl. It is a 16th century Tibetan painting depicting a meditating sage with a singing bowl. The bowl looks like one of the typical engraved bowls, with the same proportions and the line engraved on the rim. It sits on a red cushion with an implement inside and a cloth cover behind. A monkey holds a branch of leaves and red berries just above the bowl, as if making an offering. The monk is turned toward the bowl as if listening. A monkey in the foreground offers him more fruit and a deer faces the bowl. Compositionally, the bowl is very prominent in this painting.
This is one of the few pieces of cultural proof that the singing bowls are part of Tibetan culture and meditation practice. The singing bowls themselves are several centuries older than this painting.
As I have written elsewhere, singing bowls are related to ancient Persian bowls, having the same metallurgy, construction methods and even similar decorations. The Persian bowls we are comparing them to were produced from the 9th-12th centuries. The manufacturing methods are well hidden in a bowl and the science did not exist to reverse engineer them. The Himalayan bowl makers had to have learned the living craft. Therefore, the Himalayan bowls are at least as old as the 12th century, if not earlier. There would have been no way for later artisans to pick up a long lost craft from Persia. The technology was carried by the silk roads around the 11th or 12th century.
The same metallurgical study revealed that later Himalayan singing bowls are related to similar bowls from Southeast Asia. They were produced from the 16th-19th century. Some can be found in the National Palace museum in Phnom Pehn, Cambodia. I have found others in obscure temples in Northern Thailand on my many temple visits.
Most antique singing bowls were made in the later period. The majority of antiques that have been available in recent decades were produced in the 18th - 19th centuries. The earlier bowls were much more time consuming to make. Since there have been fewer discovered and since they were more difficult to produce, it is likely that fewer early period bowls were made. Therefore, any antique found today is likely to be a late period antique.
The early period antiques can be distinguished by a folded rim, a technique that was lost in later years. Early antiques may show heavy oxidation, pitting and physical signs of extreme old age. The metal is worn smooth and any folds in the metal begin to separate. Tiny fractures and irregularities can be seen under high magnification.
Late period antiques usually have a less finished rim which can look slightly uneven and wavy. They have a more uniform thickness from top to bottom without the exaggerated rim. The exception are the jambati (large bowls) which retained a simplified rim fold into the 19th century.
The overwhelming majority of singing bowls are new, produced since 1990. Of the antiques, most are from the 18th and 19th centuries. The finest antiques seem to have been made around the 16th - 17th centuries. The early bowls from the 12th-15th centuries are extremely rare and have been found in the smallest number.
During each period, there seems to be one predominant style, indicating that one workshop may have made the majority of the bowls. In fact, due to the continuity of the metal and hammering techniques and clear generational turnover, it may be that one shop made most of the singing bowls throughout history.
In a culture that changes little over the centuries, I imagine one main workshop controlled the trade with a few smaller workshops around them, competing with smaller numbers of bowls. This would explain the great similarity of style in each period. However, it is also known from the handicrafts made today that the Newari artisans are extremely adept at making the same object by hand, so it may be that multiple workshops made nearly identical bowls during each period.
Such details are difficult to uncover. With the large collection in The Singing Bowl Museum, I am able to examine multiple examples of each type and compare their features in close detail. For example, I can see the different engraving tools used. I can measure the hammer marks and see when different hammers were used. Many details become clear with this detailed study but much of the human history is unfortunately lost to time.
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