No. 2371. CATALOGUE OF BUDDHIST ART— CASANOWICZ 327 



all the prayers contained in the cylinder. The prayer wheel is used 

 especially by the Buddhists of Tibet, and the most usual invocation 

 inscribed on the rolls in prayer wheels consists of the words: "Om! 

 mani padme! Hum," which is rendered: "Hail, jewel in the lotus." 

 The repetition of this formula is the most common mode of praying 

 met with among the Mongols and Tibetans. It is addressed to 

 Avalokitvsvara (Padmapani), who appeared from out of a lotus for 

 the deliverance of mankind. By the Tibetans he is held in special 

 veneration as the protector and patron of Tibet, and is being incar- 

 nated in the Dalai Lama, the head of Tibetan Buddhism. Prayer 

 wheels are placed in the entrance to temples and houses, to be turned 

 by each person passing by it, on gables of houses, or over the hearth, 

 where they are twirled by the wind or smoke. Sometimes a wheel 

 is fixed to the bed of a stream and kept in motion by the current, 

 thus praying night and day for the owner. Besides the small hand- 

 prayer wheels, usually measuring from 3 to 5 inches in height and from 

 2 to 3 inches in diameter, there are large machines set up in temples 

 and monasteries, which are sometimes 30 or 40 feet high and 15 or 

 20 feet in diameter. In these are placed a collection of the canonical 

 books of lamaism (ka-gyur, see p. 322), and by means of bars fixed 

 in the lower extremity of the axis of the barrel it is put in motion. 

 It is a materialistic putting into practice of the symbolical phrase 

 "Turning the wheel of the law." 



208. Small Stationary Prayer Wheel. — Bronze. The axis projects 

 above the top, so that it may be put in motion without removing it 

 from the stand on which it rests. It is adorned with a raised orna- 

 mentation of the dorje and an invocation in Nepalese Sanskrit char- 

 acters, while the top of the cylinder is ornamented with a wheel, and 

 the bottom with four dorjes. Tibet. (Cat. No. 130303, U.S.N.M.). 



209. Hand Prayer Wheel.- — Bronze. The top is decorated with a 

 silver wheel, studded with coral and turquoise beads. The bottom 

 has four dorjes, and on the sides is the six-syllable spell in Landza 

 characters in silver. Bands above and below are decorated with 

 dorjes and lotus flowers, respectively. The axis terminates in a 

 pineapple-shaped knob of silver. Tibet. (Cat. No. 130392, U.S.N.M.) 



210. Prayer Wheel.— Bronze. The top is dome-shaped. The bar- 

 rel is divided into two compartments by a ridge, which is decorated 

 with coral and turquoise beads. Darjeeling (on the border of Tibet), 

 India. (Cat. No. 74494, U.S.N.M.) 



211. Strip of Chinese Paper. — On which the formula "Om, mani 

 padme hum" is nearly 400 times repeated in print. As about 100 of 

 such sheets can be wrapped in the cylinder, a revolution of the wheel 

 would be equivalent to repeating the formula 40,000 times. Tibet 

 (Cat. No. 131014, U.S.N.M.) 



