Comments on “Making a kangling for chöd”

I’m wondering whether putting wax through the central channel (the stage you omitted) might also produce clearer sound quality. I tried to research this a little but couldn’t find anything definitive. All the instruments I can think of that produce a great, ‘hollow-ish’ sound, have smooth walls. Conch shells, for example. Maybe this affects the sound wave trajectory.

Rin’dzin

Hello again!

Dré = demon, mèl = watching?

Regarding fake aging: two main signs of fake aging are dye and knife marks. I’ve sent you a photo of this. As well as the dye, you can see where someone’s used a knife to repeatedly hack along the bone. I’ve no idea why a bone with many small identical knife hack marks is supposed to look ancient, but apparently it does. Maybe the chips help retain the very antique looking dye.

Rin’dzin

Fantastic - even though my kangling is just a touristy one that has been minimally improved I have a huge affection for it. In fact recently in Aro Ling we’ve been looking at chod and kanglings. I’ll have to direct the class to this page for more gloriously gruesome details.

This post is really disgusting.

I was once told that if we had no Kangling we could use our own bare hand as a Kangling, since we would be blowing through bone anyway. I own a wooden Kangling, it’s way more confortable to my own fears :)

I thought those tourist kangling’s where made of plastic, they seem so artificial.

Better to build your own. Great job. The whole process is really disgusting :)

All the best,

Sherab Dorje

Didn’t expect to see this here. What a great idea! While I opted for pig’s blood because it was much easier to find than the super-authentic substances you mentioned in the article, I think the leather on your Kangling is far superior to the leather on mine. I purchased the femur from Ngakma Shardröl, and when I received it, it was pretty clean already. During the sanding, I was getting a some dust in my nose, so I decided to wet the surface of the bone with some snotty spit. The mostly white-ish bone became a lovely, sickly yellow with reddish undertones in the little crevices. In some places, it almost looks like the bone has been infused with oil. This process does not appear to have damaged the bone, and I have used the same technique on some bone I bought for cemetery ornaments. The spit was used with 1200 sandpaper, and while the bone has an almost mirror finish, the natural biological features are still intact.

Do you think you’ll do a Kapala page next?

Cheers!

Thank you for this text. I will have to make/repurpose my own kangling in future, and this will be useful reference material.

Thank you so much for this great tutorial!!

Could I use any species femur? For my type of practice human is not essential.

Hi

I’m the editor of Sacred Hoop Magazine - a magazine about shamanism - but we include the earthier end of Tibetan Buddhism too. I took refuge with Ngak’chang Rinpoche, stayed with him privately several times in his house in Cardiff (he taught me thangka painting) and he’s a subscriber to Sacred Hoop

I’ve been thinking of writing an article about human bone use in Tibetan Buddhism for some time - I’m in the middle of writing a book on Central Asian Buddhist and shamanic ritual objects - ritual objects are my main focus of shamanism, and thought an article in Sacred Hoop would be good to have and I have a fair few human bone objects in my own collection for practice and also I buy and sell objects via my gallery www.3worlds.co.uk

I really loved your article - it was so funny (and accurate).

Would it be possible to have reprint permission for it to appear in Sacred Hoop.. we cant pay but we’ll produce it so it looks great - we’re full colour and pride ourselves in our visual presentation.

I hope to hear from you

Blessings

Nick

Thanks.

I will try and see, I do not have a human teacher, guess my path is pretty different,
however, it is not a good way, for me, to buy such important items, they must be “found” as the way it came to me, is part of its power (emotions etc evoked). I had charnel ground initiation and have therefore an assortment of bones, but none a complete femur. Species is not important to me, as all beings are related, and I have learned loads from non-humans. Time to get my lazy self back into a charnel ground and find a femur.

Thanks again.

One of the most grotesque yet most edifying things I’ve read in quite a while. Great article–pointing to the essence of tantra that sanitized Western presentations often avoid!

Thanks!

There’s a story of Padmasambhava reviving Princess Pema Sal, who had died when stung by a bee, by drawing a seed syllable NRI on her chest. This was done with ‘the blood of knowledge’ - menstrual blood - though I’m not sure whether it’s detailed where Padmasambhava got it from.

Make sure to use a buddhist bone only. And from someone who wasn’t a prisoner, did not break samaya, etc. Do not use anything else.

Hi

its fairly hard to find bones in the country I currently am, all I gor hold of was this pigs femur –>
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/SwjBZ8jHfzzqMsI0QPjk-NMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink

I will give it a try during the holydays. But it seems a bit short.
Thanks again for this great article.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this page and I look forward to exploring the rest of your site. Might I add your humor was cracking me up so very much. You are an awesome writer. While I’m not really ready to make my own kangling just yet, it’s definitely something to ponder on and plant seeds to do in the future. Your kangling turned out beautifully and I love that you made it yourself and that you used the “sacred mixture” as your paint. Very cool! Thanks for sharing the detailed information.

I really, really enjoyed this, though I thought that I wouldn’t due to the click-bait-ish title.
Keep it up!

-A

I recently came across an antique one of these. I was wondering if you had any advice on cleaning it? It’s got metal filigree set along the bone. I’d like to clean the inside and outside because who knows where it has been…

Thanks! I did note the H2O2 comment. However, I was wondering if you might have another idea, since the H2O2 will likely tarnish the metal. Maybe acetic acid?

Thanks, I’ll check them out.

I just hope I won’t be cursed by the kangling for the refurbishment. I think it may prefer it’s current state.

I am almost finished making my own Kangling! Your article was extremely helpful and I don’t think I would have even thought of making my own if I had not seen it. Thank you!

I acquired a human femur from Osta International (www.osta.ca).
If your in Canada, The Bone room isn’t able to ship up here.
I used Deer Rawhide which is very very stretchy and shrinks alot! I sourced it from a First Nations Drum supply store.
My Kangling isn’t nearly as grizzly and macabre looking as yours! Would you like a photo?

It has been a very interesting process to say the least! Thank you!

Buonasera, cortsemente volevo cheiderti, se ti mando una foto, riusciresti a dirmi s eil kangling che ho è umano o forse animale??? Grazie mille! Vivo in Italia e ho comprato questo strumento rituale da poco… Hai scritto un bellissimo articolo!