Buddhist Chant Boxes

Buddhist chant boxes are hardware loop players that are sold in temples throughout Asia. Not enough monks and nuns chanting? Flip the switch and hear chanting whenever and wherever you want. Most Buddhist chant boxes have at least two chants in them. They come with a headphone jack and/or a speaker, and they run on batteries or external power. Definitely low-fi.

I first learned about temple chant boxes through the Buddha Machine, not my study of Buddhism. Once I discovered them, I began to collect them. Pure Land Buddhism isn't my path but I respect the tradition. Besides, there aren't that many Buddhist gadgets for Dharma Geeks to collect.

My favorite is the first one I received, the blue one. The third eye lights up red when it's playing and it has the best sound quality of all. You can listen to the first chant and the second chant. The name on the side is Amituofo. Now I can't find more like this one.

I've never been to Asia but I'd love to see these for sale inside or outside of a temple. Oddly I've never encountered one in either an Asian store or temple here in the States. I find them online and have them sent to me.

Now, I want to make my own loop player music boxes using a Radio Shack recording module. In an Altoids tin of course.

The Soundbomb looks like fun. Odd that one has to apply instead of simply buying it.

So, are you surprised to learn that I like 8 bit music too?