As a clown, I was looking for small, unique, or silly instruments that were lightweight and would fit in my pockets. I’m often keeping a lookout for unique instruments and sounds to experiment with as well. I initially thought these were smaller cymbals, held between two fingers, that belly dancers often wear, but with a more decorative design. Upon arrival, they were much larger and heavier, at almost half a pound of brass alloy of seven veiled metals of enlightenment, forever bound with a leather strap that I’m sure my dog Gwinn would happily grant eternal freedom.

These are cymbals used for meditation. The word comes from ཏིང་ཤགས with emphasis on the “ting”, meaning something similar to hanging cymbals or sounding metal. The way they work is that whenever someone asks a question, I can just ring the tingsha, and they should immediately have an epiphany about the answer. There’s nothing like spiritual clarity to help with complex technical questions. So far, my dogs seem to have all the answers about their reactions to it.

The symbols ॐ मणि पद्मे हूँ are very poor-quality renditions of “Oṃ maṇi padme hūm̐“, a sacred six-syllable mantra in Sanskrit. It translates to “Jewel in the Lotus,” symbolizing compassion born of wisdom. The mantra has deep significance in Tibetan Buddhism and is used to purify the body, speech, and mind toward enlightenment. It took some time before I could identify which symbol corresponded to the way most online images of it appear to be written. No clarity.

Inside each cymbal, there were three markings ཨོཾཨཱཿཧཱུྃ that were semi-legible, as “Oṃ Āḥ Hūṃ” written inside, the Vajra Recitation, representing the purification and blessing of the body, speech, and mind. I could stand to the side of the room, ring the tingsha, and whisper, “You have arrived at your destination.”

From what I understand, you hold the strap with both hands so the brass cymbals sit level, then strike them together to produce a resonating chime. The product page advertises a 30-60-second chime, but I was only able to get six seconds. When I listen to others online using their tingsha cymbals, the more authentic ones seem to last much longer and have a resonating sound. This is great for anyone who’s impatient and doesn’t want to wait long for the sound to fade.

Using a spectrogram, the pitch is detected at 2.83, 5.97, 8.6, 10.5, and 16.2 kHz, with higher frequencies only lasting briefly. This fading of higher frequencies may be a form of muting with the leather strip provided, but I believe a simpler explanation is that my microphone simply gave up on enlightenment as the volume faded. With its quick fade and high pitch, I could bring it to my majong group and the community center, signaling that we are all waiting for a player to join the Charleston shuffle or move their tiles to the field.

During my initial analysis, the knot on one end of the leather strip came undone. I tied it a bit tight, hoping to reduce potential sound muting. There was no difference, but I soon encountered another issue: the tight knot went through the hole. I double-knotted the end of the strip for safety. The Pirate Paul Burchill may have his own intro music – I just ring the bell while tying knots.

For sound exploration, I’ve seen a fun example: play with sound by dipping the tingsha into water.

So, what kind of mischief can I get into as a clown using these? One idea is to just ring the tingsha after every sentence. I’m going to grab a root beer. *ding* I could ring the tingsha and then pretend to answer the phone with a kazoo in my nose to make the Charlie Brown adult sounds.