Prayer Wheels / Mani Wheels

Prayer Wheels / Mani Wheels

Tibetan prayer wheels also called Mani wheels by the Tibetans are holy ritual objects for spreading and distributing spiritual blessings positive and well wishes for all beings to invoke good karma. A prayer wheel is a wheel on a spindle, and on the wheel are rolls of thin paper, imprinted with numerous copies of the mantra or prayers “Om Mani Padme Hum” these mantras are usually in an ancient Indian script or in Tibetan script which are wounded around an axle in a protective container which is then rotated continuously. Attached to the cylinder is a lead weight with a chain, which facilitates the rotation. Larger decorative versions of the syllables of the mantra are also found carved on the outside cover of the prayer wheel.

According to the Tibetan Buddhists belief chanting these mantras loudly or silently to one, or even viewing them has the same effect which invokes the powerful benevolent attention and blessings of Chenrezig, the embodiment of compassion. Tibetans spinning the written form of the mantra around in a Mani wheel believe that every rotation of a prayer wheel equals one utterance of the mantra so more copies of the mantra, the more the religious practice will in return help them accumulate merits, replace negative vibes with positive ones, and hence bringing good karma for the future and next life.

Turning the prayer wheel is Buddhist religious exercise a part of their lives, people turn these Mani wheels or Prayer wheels day and night for hours and hours while waking or resting whenever their right hand is free are murmuring the mantra “Om Mani Padme Hum” over and over again. Buddhist pilgrims use the prayer wheel for meditation and healing.

Buddhists turn the wheel clockwise. Just touching and turning a prayer wheel brings incredible purification and accumulates unbelievable merit. When a Buddhist practitioner walks around the installation in a clockwise direction and rubs each one with the right hand as he or she passes, the wheels are sent rotating. In the interiors, thousands of mantras are thought to be activated as the drums on which they are inscribed rotate.

Tibetans innovated Tibetan prayer wheel, the earliest known mention of prayer wheels is in an account written by a Chinese pilgrim, in 400 AD, while travelling through the area now known as Ladakh. The idea has its origins in a play on the Sanskrit phrase 'to turn the wheel of the law' meaning 'to teach the Dharma' which refers to the event when Shakyamuni Buddha began to preach".

In today’s world Tibetan prayer wheels have not simply remained in Tibet. Since the 1950s, when tens of thousands of Tibetans became refugees, dharma wheels have begun turning in new lands unlike the Tibetan culture. Tibetan prayer wheels vary in size from small (from 3 inches in height) to Larger Tibetan prayer wheels, which may be several yards (meters) high and one or two yards (meters) in diameter containing myriad copies of the mantra, and may also contain sacred texts, up to hundreds of volumes. Tibetan prayer wheel are not only hand held it is common a bucket-sized Tibetan prayer wheels lined up on wooden racks along walking paths circling monasteries and other sacred sites, for the benefit of visiting pilgrims. Large Tibetan prayer wheels are built so that they are empowered by the flowing water, the flaming light, and the blowing wind which drive them, and can later pass their positive karma to all who touch them.

It is also said that if you have a prayer wheel in your house, your house is the same as the Potala, the pure land of the Compassion Buddha.

We here at www.himalayacrafts.com have a variety of selected Tibetan Prayer Wheels for online sale made by qualified and experienced craftsmen from Nepal and Tibetan people living in Nepal. If you want additional information on Prayer Wheel or Mani Wheel simply send us a mail at sales@himalayacrafts.com