The history of the singing bowl museum

The Singing Bowl Museum began as an idea around 2004. I began collecting antique singing bowls in 1998. I was captivated by the sounds and mysterious history of the bowls.

By 2001, I was traveling regularly to Nepal. I scoured the Kathmandu Valley searching for the best bowls. I took ample extra time for cultural immersion and to study Buddhism. I made wonderful friends and enjoyed the beautiful scenery in Kathmandu for years.

In the beginning, my personal collection of antique singing bowls had grown quite large. One day I was sitting playing the bowls and realized there were tall stacks of bowls that I had not touched for months. I began selling them online, launching the popular brand Himalayan Bowls.

The first website with recordings and photos of individual singing bowls, Himalayan Bowls became a favorite with serious collectors. It was the first singing bowl website that let you choose an individual bowl and buy it online. At the time, all the other websites lacked a shopping cart.

In the world of singing bowls, I have made a lot of firsts: the first recordings, the first shopping cart, the first informative videos, some of the first downloadable music, the first factual history (The Singing Bowl Book) and now the first museum dedicated to singing bowls.

It started small, with those first few stacks of antiques from my personal collection. As I began to sell more, I recognized the need to preserve the various types of singing bowls. I had discovered a variety of different types. I began to notice similarities and differences between them. I had the idea to keep at least one of every type in order to create a history of the bowls. What if I could find continuity, create a timeline for all these different bowls?

I also wanted to retain the best examples to use in sound healing, recording and for other professionals to use. What if I could make sets of all the best types? What could I discover about them if I put them all together?

The idea of the museum was born. It seemed to be the inevitable conclusion of my tireless collectng.

I quietly set aside many of the best bowls in the back room of my shop in San Francisco. Like a shrine room, The bowls were neatly organized but packed into a small space along with some feng shui prescriptions for that part of the space.

In 2014, I made my last buying trip to Nepal where I uncovered a very large collection of antiques that had been sitting for over a decade. This new assortment greatly expanded the size of the museum.

Periodically, I would go through the museum collection and sell some duplicate or lesser quality pieces from the special collection. Most of what I sold through Himalayan Bowls were the later period antiques and new singing bowls.

Once I traveled to Nepal, I became committed to helping the living artisans. Himalayan Bowls expanded to offer new singing bowls with a mission to support the artisans. That mission continues today with the new owner of Himalayan Bowls. I left the company at the end of 2021 to focus on launching The Singing Bowl Museum and to have more time to teach.

The museum collection today is unlike any other because of the very high quality. These are the best quality antique singing bowls in the world. They are also some of the oldest.

No other collection is composed of such high quality, amazing sounding antiques. These are among the best singing bowls ever made because I only set aside the best for the museum.

You can experience the virtual collection with the many audio and photo examples. You can also bring home some these wonderful treasures. They are amazing objects to have around.