electric dharma wheels -- thardo khorlo Health HavenTibetan Pages |
Traditionally wheels were not used at all in Tibet except for spiritual purposes -- carts and similar wheeled devices were known from other cultures, but their use was intentionally avoided. The earliest known mention of prayer wheels is in an account written by a Chinese pilgrim, in 400 AD, while traveling through the area now known as Ladakh. The idea is said to have originated as a play on the phrase "turn the wheel of the dharma," a classical metaphor for Buddha's teaching activity. Mani wheels are found all over Tibet and in areas influenced by Tibetan culture. There are many types of Mani wheels, but small hand-held wheels, like the one shown here, are the most common by far. Tibetan people carry them around for hours, and even on long pilgrimages, spinning them any time they have a hand free.
They can be found mounted in rows next to pathways, to be spun by people entering a shrine, or along the route which people use as they walk slowly around and around a sacred site -- a form of spiritual practice called circumambulation.
Tibetan Buddhist Mani wheels are always spun clockwise, as viewed from above, for any or all of several reasons: It rotates the syllables of the mantra so that they would pass a viewer in the order that they would be read, it follows the direction of the sun, and it matches the clockwise circumambulation of stupas. Practitioners of Bon, the pre Buddhist spiritual tradition of Tibet, spin their prayer wheels counter-clockwise, the same direction they use in circumambulation. Much of Tibetan culture has now had to take refuge outside its homeland. In Tibet under Chinese rule, mechanical wheels are everywhere, on trucks and busses and cars and tanks, but spiritual training and practice, and even learning the Tibetan language, are severely restricted. With the introduction of Tibetan Buddhism into the West, new types of Mani wheels have come into being. His Holiness the Dalai Lama has said that having the mantra on your computer works the same as a traditional prayer wheel. Since a computer's hard disk spins hundreds of thousands of times per hour, and can contain many copies of the mantra, anyone who wants to can turn their computer into a prayer wheel.
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explanations of the prayer (mantra) Chenrezig: The Embodiment of Compassion Mani Graphics: Images of Awakening images of the mantra
The Language of Tibet top of page |
This particular image shows the wheel leaning on a wooden rest, and shows the mantra roll removed from the protective case. In the case of a small hand-held wheel like this one the scroll can be a 20 or more yards (meters) in length. Links to on-line stores that offer hand spun prayer wheels are given below. Some of them also offer table-top prayer wheels like the one shown:
If you already own a wheel that has no prayers, one of the Tibetan stores or Internet vendors can probably get a mantra roll for you if you tell them the size of your wheel case (height and diameter of cylinder). More Images of Prayer Wheels on the Web prayer wheels at Land of Medicine Buddha a large wheel turned by water turning prayer wheels in a monastery turning prayer wheels in Swayambhunath |
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booksweb sites Web Resources Books
For books on the centrality of compassion in Tibetan Buddhism, on Chenrezig and on the Bodhisattva Path, please look at the "Books" section of our page Chenrezig: The Embodiment of Compassion. top of page |
wheel. (opening image and Introduction) Muktinath / Chumig Gyatsa ... In pictures Water-driven prayer wheel (Introduction) YetiZone - Web Himalayan Trekking Guidebook Hand-wheel and table-wheel images -- (Traditional Wheels) Silk Roads top of page |
Dream Flag Your Comments and Suggestions Contacting Dharma Haven END=OM MANI PADME HUM.( 3 TIMES ).RESEARCH BUDDHIST DHARMA BY BIKKHUNI GESHE TESERING TASHI.VIETNAMESE TIBET,THEREVADA,MAYAHANA.AMITTABA ( PURE LAND ).NUN.29/1/2012. |
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