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Start Over Object name Prayer wheel Materials Wood (plant material)
Hearst Museum object titled Prayer wheel, accession number 9-21896, described as Tibetan prayer wheel; plain on the outside, but with a tightly wound scroll, carefully enclosed in a sewn cloth sheath, and fit precisely to the copper cylinder. It spins easily on an ingeniously crafted bearing made of carved wood and shell, and is able to facilitate millions of revolutions without breaking down or causing undue friction. A coil of mantras, often hundreds of thousands of mantras, printed from wood blocks on long scrolls, is within the copper cylinder.
Hearst Museum object titled Prayer wheel, accession number 9-21910a-d, described as This is a hand held prayer wheel. A coil of mantras, often hundreds of thousands of mantras, printed from wood blocks on long scrolls, is placed within the cylinder. The meditator spins the wheel, using the lead weight on the end of the chain to accelerate and sustain the spinning. Like other Buddhist ritual devices, the prayer wheel is a support (rten) for meditation. With each revolution of the wheel, the meditator visualizes the mantras going forth to benefit others. Each of hundreds of thousands of mantras becomes the deity of that mantra and goes forth to encompass the welfare and happiness for limitless living beings. The most common mantra in Tibetan prayer wheels is the six syllable mantra of Avalokiteshvara: "Om Mani Padme Hum." This prayer wheel is empty. A new mantra scroll can easily be placed inside.This is a rather crude prayer wheel, lacking the embossed letters of the mantra on the exterior and having little in the way of ornamentation except the coral and turquoise insets in the top. The top, however, is not original and does not match the rest of the object. It does function properly to keep the spinning wheel it place . It may have been fitted to this prayer wheel subsequent to its exiting Tibet. See prayer wheel worn on the belt of a nobelman: Photo T-92. See similar object: T-113

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