Prayer wheel

views updated

Prayer wheel. A cylinder, used in Tibetan Buddhism, inscribed on the outside with a mantra (often Oṃ mani padme hum), and containing scrolls on which this and other mantras, as well as sacred texts, are written. Turning the wheel (clockwise, never anti-clockwise, except among adherents of Bön) releases the power inherent in the texts and prayers.

More From encyclopedia.com