Singing Bowls

Zanzibar Tribal Art Gallery in Sacramento, California has one of the largest selections of contemporary, vintage and antique singing bowls in the United states. 

At Zanzibar Trading Co., we carefully hand select each and every vintage and antique singing bowl for its clarity, musical tone, strength and length of quality sound.

We literally play hundreds to select just a few.

Tibetan Singing Bowls as well as metal singing bowls from India, Nepal, Japan and Korea are displayed in our retail gallery.

Each bowl is carefully hand selected by Zanzibar owner Scott Farrell for superior quality, sound and resonance.  We usually have hundreds of bowls in stock to choose from - from small bowls priced under $40 to rare and unique and large bowls that can go into the thousands.

We also carry a very large selection of pillows to rest your bowls on and the largest selection of puja sticks that we're aware of (dozens of sizes, styles and woods).

Rare and unique bowls are our specialty.  Lingham bowls, pyramid bowls, unique shape and design singing bowls are all to be found in our Sacramento gallery.  Private appointments available.  We can also play bowls over the phone and send you photographs and sound clips. 

Want to learn more or buy online?  click >>> Tibetan Singing Bowls

Vintage & Antique bowls START at around $45- and go up to over $1,000!! IF you are interested in ordering a bowl - you can "buy" one online... however PLEASE put your price range in the comments section of the checkout area (ie $40-$50). Our inventory is ALWAYS changing and we don't always have bowls as low as $35 - small bowls (and thus less expensive ones) are becoming VERY difficult to locate! PLEASE NOTE: The bowl(s) shown is/are NOT the one you will receive... it/they is/are for example purposes only!

Our bowls are all hand crafted and we guarantee their authenticity. Our bowls range in age from contemporary to our vintage/antique bowls which range in age from 70 to 300 plus years old. While many dealers claim they can tell you the age of a bowl, we usually can only offer guesses based on experience with patina, shape and markings.

Regrettably the interest in these limited available treasures has seen a proliferation in contemporary copies or forgeries being produced (primarily in India, but recently in China and Nepal as well.)  BUYER BEWARE!  But, if you like the sound of a bowl, BUY IT!  We've found that MANY dealers sell these contemporarily produced bowls for about the same price that we sell authentic antique bowls for (in our gallery, new bowls sell for about 1/2 the price of old ones). 

While these contemporary bowls certainly have their place and some can sound superb (we even sell them CLEARLY labeled as contemporary), it is our opinion that the older Tibetan bowls are of superior quality, and have a "presence" that the new bowls do not.

At Zanzibar Trading Co., our honest belief is that these bowls pick you rather than you picking the bowl!

We'll be happy to play bowls for you over the phone or attempt to fulfill orders for specific sizes, price ranges or variety of bowls, however we honestly believe there is no substitute for choosing your bowl personally. We welcome you to visit our gallery and do this!

We purchase our bowls not on appearance, but on the quality of their sound: both when struck like a gong and when played to "sing".

At any given time, we usually have anywhere from 60 to 200 plus bowls in stock, ranging in size from around 3" to over 25".

Smaller bowls are becoming very rare, with medium sized bowls of 6 - 8" being readily available and GOOD quality larger bowls (over 10") being difficult to find.

Unusual for many dealers, we sell our bowls by the kilo or gram (which is how we purchase them and feel it is the honorable way to sell them, as well). Simply put, we sell them by weight.

Thus, two bowls of roughly the same size (say a small bowl mearuing 4" across) may be very differently priced - one may have thin walls and sell for $50 while one with a thick wall and prominent lip may go for double or triple that price!

We place each of our superior bowls into categories, including:

A Bowls (Lotus Bowls)- Superior quality bowls with very good tonal qualities and minimal feedback. Easy for even novices to "sing".

AA Bowls (Tara Bowls)- Exceptional quality bowls featuring multiple tones, long-lasting singing and pleasant sounds.

AAA Bowls (Buddha Bowls)- Near perfect bowls! These bowls are superior in every respect when considering sound. Mostly thick walled and with lips, these bowls are true gems of craftmanship.

AAAA (4 A Bowls or Lama Bowls): Our finest bowls - simply put they are perfect (at least in terms of sound). Exceptionally rare - we only average approximately one 4A bowl out of every 50-60 bowls we select from literally hundreds or even thousands.

We also rate some very good bowls by giving them B, C or D ratings. Some bowls also are noted as being a "+" bowl (thus an AA+ bowl is ALMOST an AAA but perhaps lacks one specific quality of the dozen or so requirements we place on the next grade).

There are minimal differences in pricing per kilo, based on the quality of the bowl, its appearance and estimated age as well as scarcity.

While we cannot guarantee your satisfaction and agreement with our placement of bowls into these categories, many of our happy clients agree with our subtle classification system.

We strongly discourage you from forming an opinion based on our grading of a bowl: ALL of our bowls are superior - on each buying trip Scott literally spends hours, sometimes days playing hundreds of bowls to select the FEW superior ones that match his strict standards.

Thus, while other dealers may simply order an assortment of bowls by weight or size, we've already narrowed the bowls we purchase into the best 5% or so available at any given time.

On some buying trips Scott buys dozens of bowls and some trips comes home with only a few. We primarily source our bowls in Nepal, buying them from a dealer who has employees who scour the countryside, buying bowls. This gives us a wonderful selection and opportunity to select only the best bowls. Scott also buys the occasional individual or group of bowls directly from individuals, Monks and Monasteries, as well.

We also carry one of the largest selections of pujas or sticks for singing bowls.  Clients choosing their own bowl in our gallery are invited to try literally dozens of sizes, styles and woods until they find the one that works for them.  We include a basic, softwood stick with each bowl and only charge the difference in our cost for "upgrades" to hardwood, carved and superior sticks.
 

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