# Kangling

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{{Short description|Musical instrument}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2019}}
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[[File:Alexandra David-Neels.jpg|thumb|[Alexandra David-Neel](/source/Alexandra_David-N%C3%A9el) 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 [Tibetan](/source/Standard_Tibetan) name for a [trumpet](/source/trumpet) or horn made out of a human [tibia](/source/tibia)<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jDiqDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA166|title=Body Matters: Exploring the Materiality of the Human Body|editor-first1=Luci|editor-last1=Attala|editor-first2=Louise|editor-last2=Steel|publisher=[University of Wales Press](/source/University_of_Wales_Press)|year=2019|page=166|isbn=978-1786834157}}</ref> or [femur](/source/femur), used in [Tibetan Buddhism](/source/Tibetan_Buddhism) for various [chöd](/source/ch%C3%B6d) rituals as well as funerals performed by a chöpa. The leg bone of a deceased person is used.<ref name=Handa04>{{cite book|title=Buddhist Monasteries of Himachal|first=O.C.|last=Handa|publisher=Indus Publishing Company|year=2005|pages=320|isbn=978-8173871702
}}</ref> Alternatively, the leg bone of a respected teacher may be used.<ref name=Loseries-Leick>{{cite book|title=Tibetan Mahayoga Tantra: An Ethno Historical Study of Skulls, Bones and Relics|first=Andrea|last=Loseries-Leick|publisher=B.R. Publishing Corporation|year=2008|pages=225|isbn=978-8176466424}}</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](/source/ch%C3%B6d) practice, the practitioner, motivated by [compassion](/source/compassion), plays the kangling as a gesture of fearlessness, to summon [hungry spirits](/source/Preta) 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](/source/Palden_Lhamo)|alt=]]
A minor figure from [Katok Monastery](/source/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|url=https://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Chopa-Lugu/8631|encyclopedia=[The Treasury of Lives](/source/The_Treasury_of_Lives)|title=The First Chonyi Gyatso, Chopa Lugu|first=Samten|last=Chhosphel|date=December 2011|access-date=21 December 2025}}</ref>

==See also==
*[Gyaling](/source/Gyaling)

==References==
{{reflist}}
{{Musical instruments of Nepal}}
Category:Natural horns and trumpets
Category:Tibetan Buddhist ritual implements
Category:Tibetan musical instruments
Category:Femur
Category:Tibia
Category:Trumpets of Nepal

{{Tibet-stub}}
{{Tibetan-Buddhism-stub}}
{{Brass-instrument-stub}}

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Kangling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangling) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangling?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.