Silver- Colored Ritual Chod Kangling Trumpet Horn

Kangling (Tibetan: རྐང་གླིང།, Wylie: rkang-gling), literally translated as “leg” (kang) “flute” (ling), is the Tibetan name for a trumpet or horn made out of an animal femur, used in Tibetan Buddhism for various chöd rituals as well as funerals performed by a chöpa. The femur of a criminal or a person who died a violent death is preferred. Alternatively, the femur of a respected teacher may be used.

The kangling should only be used in chöd rituals performed outdoors with the chöd damaru and bell. In Tantric chod practice, the practitioner, motivated by compassion, plays the kangling as a gesture of fearlessness, to summon hungry sprits 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.