Kangling (Tibetan:རྐང་གླིང་།,Wylie:rkang-gling), literally translated as "leg" (kang) "flute" (ling), is theTibetan name for atrumpet or horn made out of a humantibia[1] orfemur, used inTibetan Buddhism for variouschöd rituals as well as funerals performed by a chöpa. The leg bone of a deceased person is used.[2] Alternatively, the leg bone of a respected teacher may be used.[3] 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.[2] In Tantricchöd practice, the practitioner, motivated bycompassion, plays the kangling as a gesture of fearlessness, to summonhungry 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]
A minor figure fromKatok 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)."[4]
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