The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1889-03-07
THIeET's PRAYER.WHEEL
One Of the strangest Contrivances for
worship Ever Invented.

One Of the strangest Contrivances for
worship Ever Invented.
One Of the strangest contrivances for
religious purposes ever invented by
any people Is the prayer-wheel of Thib-
ct. Thomas Manning, the only En-
glishman who ever saw Lhassa, who
visited Thibet at the commencement
Of the present century, describes these
wheels, which he calls "whirligigs," as
cylinders turning freely on an axis,
with sacred sentences and prayers in
side. Turning tho whirligig is equiv
alent to reciting the sentence, and is a
substitute for it. The hand-wheel is
carried always by pious persons, and
is constantly turned, while another
kind is fixed on an axis in the ground,
around which it revolves In the ave-
nues of the temple, he says, there are
hundreds OF them, which good souls
twist one after another as they pass
along. Others contain rolls of printed
prayers and are fixed in rows on the
walls Of temples, near villages, and in
streams to be turned by water-power.
They are said to have been in use for
more than one thousand years.
Mr.. Andrew Wilson says that the
Thibetans are the most pre-eminently
praying people on the face of the earth.
"They have praying stones, praying
pyramids, praying flags flying over
every house. praying wheels, praying
mills, and the universal prayer, 'Om
mani padme haun,' is never out OF
their mouths" A German writer on
Lamaism says OF this sentence, which
literally means 20 God! the jewel in
the lotus" that these six syllables are,
OF all the prayers Of earth, that which
is most frequently repeated, written,
printed and conveniently offered up by
mechanical means. 'They constitute
the only prayer which the common
Mongols and Thibetans know; they are
the first words which the stammering
child learns, and are the last sighs oi
the dying. The traveller murmurs
them upon his journey, the herdsmar
by his flock, the wife in her daily
work, the monk in all stages Of con
templation-that is to say, of Nihilism
and they are the cries Of conflict and tri.
umph. One meets with them everywhere
wherever the Lama church has estab
lished itselt-on flags, rocks, trees
walls, stone monuments, utensils, strips
of paper, human skulls, skeletons, etc
They are, according to the meaning o.
the believer, the essence of all religion
of all wisdom and revelation; they are
the way of salvation and the entrance
to holiness"
Mr.. Wilson observes that the repeti
tion OF this prayer, whether orally OF
by mechanical means, has become 6
sacred and protecting symbol, such al
making the sign Of the Cross is among
Roman Catholic. Christians. To tn,
ordinary Thibetan it is known in thi
sense, and also prayer for the well
being of six classes of creatures-hu
man beings, animals, evil spirits. soul
in Heaven, souls in purgatory and souls
in hell. $50 it comes to be an aspira
tion of universal benevolence, which IL
supposed to have protecting influence
on those who give utterance to it, OF
reproduce it in any way" 1t has alst
received many mystical renderings by
Lama theologians; but this is the gen
eral meaning attached to it by the peo
ple.-St. James Gazette.