While studying at Oxford, the Swedish physician Jarl had befriended a young Tibetan, a bond that seemed destined to fade away until 1939, during a mission to Egypt on behalf of the British Scientific Society, he was reached by an emissary sent by that friend
The message was urgent: a Lama of great importance needed his care. Jarl accepted without hesitation and embarked on a grueling journey, alternating between flights and long yak caravans, until he reached the monastery where both the ailing Lama and his former classmate, now a prominent figure in the monastic community, lived.
Jarl's stay lasted longer than expected, and the trust he had gained among the monks allowed him to witness practices normally closed to outsiders. One day his friend led him to an isolated area not far from the monastery: a meadow bordered by a rock face that, about two hundred and fifty meters above sea level, featured an opening resembling the entrance to a cave. On a suspended platform in front of that cavity, the monks intended to place a huge stone block, reachable only by rappelling from above.
In the center of the meadow, a precisely measured distance of sixty-three meters from the cliff, stood a slab of smooth rock, one meter wide and hollowed out in the center like a bowl. Around that spot, the monks arranged nineteen instruments in a ninety-degree arc: thirteen drums of various sizes and six long, identical trumpets. The larger drums, constructed from sections of one-millimeter-thick iron sheet and weighing one hundred and fifty kilograms, were mounted on swiveling stands; the same was true for the trumpets, just over three meters long. Each instrument had a row of monks behind it, ready to play it.
When the boulder was placed on the slab, the monk in charge of the smallest drum gave the signal. Its high-pitched sound pierced the growing din of the other instruments, while the monks' ritual chanting marked a gradually intensifying rhythm. For a few minutes, nothing happened, then the stone block began to vibrate, oscillate, and rise. It quickly gained altitude, accelerating toward the suspended platform, reaching it after a slow three-minute ascent. Once landed, the monks settled it. Jarl, incredulous, realized he was the first Westerner to witness such a scene.
Much later, scientific research would begin exploring acoustic levitation in the laboratory. Initially limited to tiny drops of water, this technique has seen significant advances: in 2013, a system capable of precisely controlling the movement of suspended liquids was developed, paving the way for potential technological and medical applications.
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