All our items are hand picked on our travels to Tibet each year. We also have special contacts in Lhasa, if you have interest in a particular item not shown. Feel free to ask as we can get anything from the rooftop of the world!!....
Tibetan prayer wheels (called Mani wheels by the Tibetans) are devices for spreading spiritual blessings and well being. Rolls of thin paper, imprinted with many, many copies of the mantra (prayer) Om Mani Padme Hum, printed in an ancient Indian script or in Tibetan script, are wound around an axle in a protective container, and spun around and around. Typically, larger decorative versions of the syllables of the mantra are also carved on the outside cover of the wheel.
Tibetan Buddhists believe that saying this mantra, out loud or silently to oneself, invokes the powerful benevolent attention and blessings of Chenrezig, the embodiment of compassion.
The "singing bowls" are traditionally constructed of a 7 metal alloy which when struck or rubbed produce a resonant humming tone. In the absence of any precise historical records, information pointing to the exact period in which these sorts of tone producing bowls were first manufactured has been lost with the passage of time. It is certain though, that the techniques required to produce utensils such as bells and gongs of similar composition were well developed and in practice in Asia at least 2500 years ago.
