View source for Kangling

{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2019}}
[[Image:Kangling example.jpg|right|thumbnail]]
[[File:Alexandra David-Neels.jpg|thumb|[[Alexandra David-Néel|Alexandra David-Neel]] in 1933 Tibet with a Kangling instrument at her waist|alt=]]
'''''Kangling''''' ({{Bo|t=རྐང་གླིང་། |w=rkang-gling}}), literally translated as "leg" (''kang'') "flute" (''ling''), is the [[Standard Tibetan|Tibetan]] name for a [[trumpet]] or horn made out of a human [[tibia]]<ref>{{Cite book|last=Attala|first=Luci|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jDiqDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA166|title=Body Matters: Exploring the Materiality of the Human Body|last2=Steel|first2=Louise|date=2019-05-01|publisher=University of Wales Press|isbn=978-1-78683-416-4|location=Cardiff, Wales|pages=166|language=en}}</ref> or [[femur]], used in [[Tibetan Buddhism]] for various [[chöd]] rituals as well as funerals performed by a chöpa. The leg bone of a criminal or a person who died a violent death is preferred.<ref name=Handa04>{{cite book |author=O.C. Handa |title=Buddhist Monasteries of Himachal |publisher=Indus Publishing Company |year=2005 |pages=320 |isbn=81-7387-170-1 }}</ref> Alternatively, the leg bone of a respected teacher may be used.<ref name=Loseries-Leick>{{cite book |author=Andrea Loseries-Leick |title=Tibetan Mahayoga Tantra: An Ethno Historical Study of Skulls, Bones and Relics |publisher=B.R. Pub. Corp |year=2008 |pages=225 }}</ref> The kangling may also be made out of wood.

The kangling should only be used in chöd rituals performed outdoors with the chöd damaru and bell.<ref name=Handa04 /> In Tantric [[chöd]] practice, the practitioner, motivated by [[compassion]], plays the kangling as a gesture of fearlessness, to summon [[Preta|hungry spirits]] and demons so that she or he may satisfy their hunger and thereby relieve their sufferings. It is also played as a way of "cutting off of the ego."{{Citation needed|date=July 2011}}
[[File:Detail of two shin-bone trumpets from a Tibetan banner Wellcome L0030388.jpg|left|thumb|Two shin-bone trumpets and skull cup from a Tibetan banner representing attributes of [[Palden Lhamo]]|alt=]]
A minor figure from [[Katok Monastery]], the First Chonyi Gyatso, Chopa Lugu (17th – mid-18th century), is remembered for his "nightly bellowing of bone-trumpet [kangling] and shouting of phet" on pilgrimage, much to the irritation of the business traveler who accompanied him. Chopa Lugu became renowned as "The Chod Yogi Who Split a Cliff in China (rgya nag brag bcad gcod pa)."<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia
| last = Chhosphel
| first = Samten
| title = The First Chonyi Gyatso, Chopa Lugu
| encyclopedia = The Treasury of Lives: Biographies of Himalayan Religious Masters
| access-date = 2013-10-08
| date = December 2011
| url = http://www.treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Chopa-Lugu/8631
}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Gyaling]]

==References==
{{reflist}}
{{Musical instruments of Nepal}}
[[Category:Natural horns and trumpets]]
[[Category:Tibetan Buddhism]]
[[Category:Tibetan musical instruments]]
[[Category:Buddhist rituals]]
[[Category:Femur]]
[[Category:Tibia]]
[[Category:Trumpets of Nepal]]

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