Standing bell

A standing bell or resting bell is an inverted bell, supported from below with the rim uppermost. Such bells are normally bowl-shaped, and exist in a wide range of sizes, from a few centimetres to a metre in diameter. They are often played by striking, but some - known as singing bowls - may also be played by rotating a mallet around the outside rim to produce a sustained musical note.

Struck bowls are used in some Buddhist religious practices to accompany periods of meditation and chanting. Struck and singing bowls are widely used for music making, meditation and relaxation, as well for personal spirituality. They have become popular with music therapists, sound healers and yoga practitioners.

Standing bells originated in China. An early form called nao took the shape of a stemmed goblet, mounted with rim uppermost, and struck on the outside with a mallet. The manufacture and use of bowls specifically for ‘singing’ is believed to be a modern phenomenon. Bowls that were capable of singing began to be imported to the West from around the early 1970s. Since then they have become a popular instrument in the US-originating new-age genre often marketed as as 'Tibetan music'.

Standing bells are known by a wide variety of terms in English, and are sometimes referred to as bowls, basins, cups or gongs. Specific terms include resting bell,prayer bowl,Buddha bowl,Himalayan bowl,Tibetan bell,rin gong,bowl gong and cup gong. A bell that is capable of producing a sustained musical note may be known as a singing bowl or Tibetan singing bowl.

Contemporary classical music scores use a variety of other names including temple bell, Buddha temple bell, Japanese temple bell, Buddhist bell, campana di templo and cup bell.

In Japan, the name for a bell of the standing type varies between Buddhist sects. It may be called rin (りん),kin (磬), dobachi,keisu,kinsu (きんす), sahari or uchinarashi, among other things. Large temple bells are sometimes called daikin (大磬), while small versions for a home altar are known as namarin.

The Chinese term qing, which historically referred to a lithophone used in state rituals, has more recently been applied to this type of standing bell. Early Chinese standing bells are called nao.

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Wikipedia