What Exactly Is a Tibetan Singing Bowl?

In the course of searching for home decor, I keep running across tibetan singing bowls. And for a while now I wonder what purpose they serve, other than being a unique piece of decoration.

So in doing a search, I found that these often decorative (some are simply plain) bowls are common among Buddhist in meditation, trance induction, and prayer.

I thought that was very interesting. And since I didn't know exactly what they were, I figured I wasn't alone and would share the info.

Do you have a Tibetan singing bowl? Do you use it or just use it as a decorative piece?