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Hi hangsters,

I don't know if this has ever been discussed in any forums before...

I was playing the hang for a non-religious Spiritual group recently and I shared what the word 'hang' means in Bernese. I was told that the word 'hang' (also 'han') in Sanskrit means 'I am'.

I have been meaning to share it with you all because for those of us who believe the hang is other-worldly (heck, who doesn't!) it is pretty amazing. For anyone who is not familiar with the 'I am' as a Spiritual concept, it basically is 'the ultimate reality', the 'absolute', the 'infinite' - or in other words - God (...as a collective/oneness/unity or any variation of word you use to describe collective consciousness, universal intelligence etc. etc.)

With such a meaning, it seems quite a suitable name for such an awe-inspiring instrument that has such a profound and difficult-to-describe affect on people. I have always felt and said that the hang helps people to remember who they really are - that it brings them back into contact with their inner self...a place of inner peace and stillness that feels so amazing because in essence, it is 'the God within'.

I already had a great deal of reverence for the hang, but now all the more so!

Sam, what an altogether lovely connection of the hang with the Sanskrit "han". From Sound Sculpture, to UFO Drum, to I AM Bliss...We are all indeed blessed by this magical sound.

Hi,

i have not much time at the weekend. But what is the "meaning for hang" not only in different languages is a very interesting question!
What means a Hang for the players in their life and what feel the listeners?

Yesterday I played my Hang on the street from a small city. A mommy with a baby stopped to listen. After a while i stopped to play and began to talk with this woman.
She used a very nice description for her feeling and for that what the Hang and I have done. I fear I dont find a good word in englisch. She said my music "entschleunigt" the life. Maybe "decelerate" is near meaning in englisch. So the Hang has in this moment decelerated the life from this woman and from the baby. In a city with a lot of people she listen the sound, must stop and everything else is not importand. That are the words from this woman.
She also told me, that she watched the people who passed. Some dont care about me and the Hang, but some are irritated. I think a few people are more sensible about the Hang vibrations than other.

I am far away from esoteric. But i feel and know that something special is in the sound from the Hang. I think this is very old, and deep inside the humans, it is very intimate.

Here are a lot of interesting questions open for me.

Greetings
Frank

The Hungarians can contribute a naturalistic way of "meaning" of the Hang: Hang in Hungarian means sound.

But I think all these meanings are coincidental. You can produce much more of them and it's our interpretation that makes the meaning not the word.

So here is the next:
"Hang" in German means penchant. So a Hang is something you have a penchant to.

I played with this meaning in the header of the Hangblog: "Ein Weblog für alle, die einen Hang zum Hang verspüren" English: "A web log for those who feel a "Hang" (penchant) to the Hang". It's a play on words not more.

Ix

Frank, my old father could not stand the sound of my native american flute. A Lakota flutemaker once told me that the NAF opens the heart. Then I understood. My father was too fearful to allow his heart to be open. It made him feel vulnerable. The Hang has the same effect. And again, those who are afraid of an open heart will be annoyed by its heavenly sound. We must simply play and allow the sound to do the work, to embrace young mothers and their babies, to sooth the frenzied minds of thre madning crowd -- to make time and space stand still in an eternal present moment.

In Hungarian Hang means Sound....

Great to get that Hungarian insight - fantastic. Good to know I'm playing a sound! ...perhaps collectively we are playing soundsound!

wow~I love hang's all meanings of different languages.

first time, when I met felix, he told "hang" means "Hand"...

so I didn't think about it much more.

but your post give me somethig new to approach.

"I am", "sound", ...

In korea, there isn't any separative words to sound "hang", but we have a word "Han"

it sounds the same with "HAN" in Sanskrit ? (I don't know)

it has several meanings.

"Boss, huge, large, bright, for a long time. "

and also different word as same pronunciation,

"a bitter feeling" (but it's not perfect meanig exactly.)

anyway,

I will approach hang with this meanings..

it's nice.