Tenzin
Norbu· Sound Practitioner

Tenzin Norbu was born into an ordinary family in Mustang, Nepal. In his childhood memory, the earliest sounds were the monastery's morning horns, his mother's low murmurs while turning the prayer wheel, and the wind passing through prayer flags in the valley. He never received formal 'sound healing' training — because in the place where he grew up, sound was already part of daily life, faith and the body.

In his early twenties he left Mustang for Kathmandu to study traditional chanting and music. Later he began giving simple sound baths to visiting travellers. In those first years he used only one old copper bowl. 'Back then I knew nothing. I only knew that if I settled down first, the people in the room would settle too.'

In 2016, in Patan, he met the Shakya coppersmith family. He was drawn to the hammer marks in the workshop that had not been polished away — the path where sound is born. The two decided to do one thing together: keep the origin visible in the objects, and let people who study sound know exactly what they are ringing.

Today Tenzin leads sound courses in Kathmandu and online. He still practises every morning, and still tests a bowl's temperature in his palm before class. 'Technique can be learned. Hearing must be practised. So first, we practise listening.'