Kangling
Encyclopedia
Kangling is the Tibetan
word for a trumpet
or horn made out of a human thighbone, used in Himalayan Buddhist
funeral rituals. The femur of a criminal or a person who died a violent death is preferred. (It may also be made out of wood or metal.)
The kangling is usually only used in Tantric
rituals, and seldom played in the open. In Tantric Chöd
practice the practitioner, motivated by compassion
, plays the kangling to summon hungry spirits and demons so that s/he may satisfy their hunger and thereby relieve their sufferings. It is also played as a way of "cutting off of the ego."
Tibetan language
The Tibetan languages are a cluster of mutually-unintelligible Tibeto-Burman languages spoken primarily by Tibetan peoples who live across a wide area of eastern Central Asia bordering the Indian subcontinent, including the Tibetan Plateau and the northern Indian subcontinent in Baltistan, Ladakh,...
word for a trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
or horn made out of a human thighbone, used in Himalayan Buddhist
Tibetan Buddhism
Tibetan Buddhism is the body of Buddhist religious doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet and certain regions of the Himalayas, including northern Nepal, Bhutan, and India . It is the state religion of Bhutan...
funeral rituals. The femur of a criminal or a person who died a violent death is preferred. (It may also be made out of wood or metal.)
The kangling is usually only used in Tantric
Tantra
Tantra , anglicised tantricism or tantrism or tantram, is the name scholars give to an inter-religious spiritual movement that arose in medieval India, expressed in scriptures ....
rituals, and seldom played in the open. In Tantric Chöd
Chöd
Chöd , is a spiritual practice found primarily in Tibetan Buddhism. Also known as "Cutting Through the Ego," the practice is based on the Prajñāpāramitā sutra...
practice the practitioner, motivated by compassion
Compassion
Compassion is a virtue — one in which the emotional capacities of empathy and sympathy are regarded as a part of love itself, and a cornerstone of greater social interconnection and humanism — foundational to the highest principles in philosophy, society, and personhood.There is an aspect of...
, plays the kangling to summon hungry spirits and demons so that s/he may satisfy their hunger and thereby relieve their sufferings. It is also played as a way of "cutting off of the ego."