Introduction

Introduction

What are tiger bells?

Tiger bells are bronze jingle bells. Jingle bells are globularly shaped, hollow and have a pellet made of metal or stone inside which produces the sound when the bell is shaken. Tiger bells stand apart from other bells because of the peculiar design on the surface: a stylized tiger's head. Very often the hoop is rectangular. On the top half of the bell's surface you often see one or two Chinese characters and some curls and curved lines, possibly floral motifs. Detailed information is on the page Various types.

Side view of a tiger bell from S.E. Mindanao (the Philippines)

Intriguing questions

Bells with this design occur all over Asia, from the Middle East to Siberia, to Indonesia. They come in different sizes and there are variations in the design. The face, the tiger's head, is however very consistent. That is why I have called these bells 'tiger bells'.

I saw these bells for the first time in 1974, in Mindanao, Southern Philippines. They were in use by several ethnic groups, as dancing bells and amulets.
In 1975, in the Musée de l'Homme in Paris (France) I found several bells on a shaman's costume from the Tungus, an ethnic group in southern Siberia. These were almost identical to tiger bells I had seen in the Philippines. I found this enormous distance between the two locations intriguing and decided to try to find out more about the history of these bells: how old they are, how they came to be where they are, where they were produced and where and how they are used. Not being an anthropologist, I had to start from scratch.

A tiger bell on a shaman's costume from Siberia
Collection Musée de l'Homme, Paris

I started this informal research in 1975. Since then I have found out a number of things. The most important finding is that some groups have bells with this design by the hundreds while other groups within the same area, sometimes neighbours, do not have one single tiger bell. Examples are several animist groups in S.E. Mindanao and several Dayak groups in Kalimantan, This occurs in several places in East Asia and has led to the assumption that trade could not have been the only distribution factor. Trade is too indiscriminate to explain this obvious preference with some groups. It would be more likely that these groups already possessed tiger bells before they reached their present location. This could link those groups with and those without the tiger bell to the various migration waves in East Asia through time. It could also mean that tiger bells found with these groups are very old.

A tiger bell on a child's ankle, Bahau Dayak, Kalimantan

Another striking fact is that the bells with the tiger's head design in its purest form occur at the extremes of the distribution area: Siberia, Mongolia and insular S.E. Asia. In between we find tiger bells of varying age, the majority possibly younger than those in northern Asia and S.E. Asia, and with many variations in shape, size and design, although all are clearly tiger bells.

The function of these bells differs per group. One particular type of tiger bells is used as an amulet by shamans from Kalimantan and Siberia. Other uses are: a necklace or a dance attribute. Other types are used as animal bells.

A tiger bell in a wooden yak bell, from Burma

The link with certain ethnic groups could indicate that the tiger bells are old. On the other hand, some of these bells are evidently newer than others. This indicates that these bells must have been produced continuously, in large numbers over hundreds of years. In fact, they are still being produced. I have been told that there are at least several workshops that still produce tiger bells of different types: in Peking, in Dehra Dun (Northern India) and possibly in the border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

New bells, made in Peking

Finding the answers

While we were collecting information in various museums and institutes, we found that although many people had seen all kinds of bronze bells, they had never recognized the tiger bells as being different from other pellet bells. Those who had noticed the particular design were satisfied with the observation that these bells were apparently of Chinese origin. Yet, the number of individual observations is vast and we now have reports of occurrence of tiger bells in the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Laos, China, Singapore, Taiwan, Mongolia, Siberia, Tuva, Burma, Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet, Bangladesh, India, Northwest Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria and Turkey. Also, we found that there are distinctly different types of tiger bells, and variations within these types.

A silver prayer mill, from Tibet

Help, from you

Since there is little literature on this subject and since I cannot visit all museum and libraries I have to rely for new facts on observations by others. Until now, travelling friends, colleagues and museum curators have helped. By presenting my search on the Internet I hope that I can reach more people and institutes. All relevant information on variations in shape, design, size, location, possible age, origin, ethnic groups, use, value, etc. is welcome. The more detailed, the better. Please mail your information, or your questions, to me. You can mail or send photographs or video recordings of bells in use, etc. If your contribution is not free of cost, please let me know in advance. With your help we can try to find more solid facts to support the preliminary conclusion: that the presence of the tiger bells makes it possible to link ethnic groups to their movements over the Asian continent. Thus the tiger bells could become a 'migration tracer'.

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