Antique Naga Pedestal Singing Bowl: Himalayan Sound Therapy, Note D#4

Pedestal or stand bowls are water spirit bowls, often called Naga bowls because of the mistaken belief that the origin of the bowls was Nagaland. The bowls are in fact from Bangladesh and some have inscriptions in old Bangladeshi characters. These inscriptions will almost always additionally show fish, water birds and lotus blooms. Naga bowls have a rounded bottom and an attached base so the bowl can be placed on a flat surface on top of a pad or cushion and played, or the pedestal held in the hand for therapy applications. Pedestal bowls are generally on the thinner side though some older ones can be quite thick. Sizes range from 4 to 10 inches. Correspondingly, the range of notes is large, third to sixth octave. Sets of 7 are sometimes obtainable. Some of the notes (E. F, G) are rare however. It is possible, over time, to put a set of 13 bowls together to include sharps. They sound amazing when played together as 1 instrument and quite a set for the collector!

I’ve never come across a bad sounding naga bowl, the pedestals are always very firmly attached to the bowl, almost as if they are 1 piece and I’ve never felt or heard a rattle. Some bowls can have quite complex sounds with harmonics and 2 or 3 notes.

Naga have recently started to be recommended for therapy applications by western sound therapy courses because of their versatility and ease of use over the body. Something I have known for 20 years.