Yoga with gong and bowls in Kathmandu
Long, layered tones to sink into.
Gong and bowls classes use large gongs, metal singing bowls or crystal bowls to fill the space with long, layered tones. You usually lie down while a facilitator plays, sometimes after some gentle movement. It is close to a sound bath, often with a little yoga around it.
No classes scheduled in the next two weeks.
What Gong and bowls does for you
You lie still and let the sound do the moving. Long tones overlap and hum, and you feel them as much as hear them, through the floor and in your chest. Many people say their thoughts slow down and they leave feeling calm and a bit spacious; some drift off to sleep. It asks nothing of you except to lie down and listen.
It suits you if
- you find it hard to switch off in a regular class
- you like music you can feel in your body
- you want to lie down and do nothing, on purpose
- you are curious about sound baths and want a gentle way in
Read the full guide to Gong and bowlsWhat a class is like, your first time, history and the words you will hear
What a class is like
Classes usually last 60 to 90 minutes. Some start with gentle yoga or breathing, then you settle on your back with a bolster under your knees, a blanket and often an eye pillow. The facilitator plays one or more gongs, metal singing bowls, crystal bowls and sometimes chimes or a drum, moving between very quiet and quite loud. The gong in particular can swell into a roar before falling away. There is almost no talking and no sweating, and the class ends with a slow return to sitting.
Your first time
- Wear warm, loose clothes and bring socks; you lie still for a long time and bodies cool down.
- Arrive early to build your nest of mat, bolster and blanket before it starts.
- Eat lightly beforehand and visit the toilet first, since getting up mid class is noisy.
Good to know
- Gongs can get loud, and some people find the intensity surprising or emotional; you can always sit up, move further away or leave quietly.
- If you are pregnant, have epilepsy or tinnitus, or are sensitive to loud sound, check with your doctor and tell the facilitator before class.
- You may hear talk of chakras, planets or special frequencies; these ideas belong to the culture around the practice, so take what resonates.
Where it comes from
The gong comes from Southeast Asia and southern China, where bronze gongs have been made for well over a thousand years; the word itself comes from Java. In those cultures gongs signal, accompany ritual and form whole orchestras, such as the Javanese gamelan.
Singing bowls have a shorter documented history than their reputation suggests. Struck standing bells are old in Buddhist temples across Asia, but rubbing bowls around the rim to make them sing appears to be largely modern, and many bowls sold as Tibetan come from Nepal or northern India. Their image as ancient Tibetan instruments is contested and was shaped largely by Western recordings and marketing from the 1970s, starting with the 1972 album Tibetan Bells.
In the West, the gong entered yoga mainly through Kundalini Yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan, who arrived in the United States in 1968 and used the gong for deep relaxation in his classes. After his death in 2004, former followers accused him of sexual abuse, and an independent investigation in 2020 concluded the allegations were more likely than not true. Gong makers later built 'planetary' gongs tuned to the Swiss writer Hans Cousto's calculations from planetary orbits, and quartz crystal bowls joined the mix.
Germany is a center of gong making, and in Berlin gong and bowl evenings are a fixture, in yoga studios, lofts, galleries and the occasional church.
Words you will hear
- Gong bath
- Lying down while gongs are played, letting the sound wash over you.
- Singing bowl
- A metal bowl that hums when rubbed around the rim with a wooden stick, or rings when struck.
- Crystal bowl
- A bowl made of quartz glass with a pure, long sustained tone.
- Mallet
- The padded beater used to play a gong or bowl.
- Eye pillow
- A small weighted cushion laid over your eyes to block out light.