The document discusses Tibetan Buddhist pilgrimage practices. It describes devotees making prostrations along their journey and wearing hand shoes. Prayer wheels are used to accumulate wisdom and merit through spinning mantras written on the outside. Pilgrims believe spinning the wheels influences planetary movements and life cycles. Each revolution of a prayer wheel containing the mantra "Om Mani Padme Hum" is as meritorious as reciting it aloud.

2. The Dalay
Lama
is always
it h
present w
p hotos from
en
t he time wh
ed
h e was forc
t
to leave Tibe

3. Postrating The devotees making a pilgrimage repeatedly measure out
their length over their entire journey.

4. They often wear hand shoes to protect their hands

5. Tibetan Buddhists believe, that the making of one hundred prostrations is
the first step to acquire a vast number of merits and will bring a profound
purification

6. This pilgrim has a prayer wheel and Tibetan prayer beads

8. A prayer wheel is a cylindrical wheel on a spindle made from metal,
wood, stone, leather or coarse cotton. Traditionally, the mantra “Om
Mani Padme Hum” is written in Sanskrit on the outside of the wheel
Hum

9. Acording to the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, spinning the wheels, will
have the same meritorious effect as orally reciting prayers

10. Prayer wheels are used to acumulate wisdom and merit (good karma)
karma
and to purify negatives (bad karma)
karma

11. The practitioner most often spins the wheel clockwise, as the direction
in which the mantras are written is that of the movement of the sun
across the sky

12. This woman, dressed in
a mixture of occidental
and Tibetan manner,
was a pious pilgrim with
a bracelet of Tibetan
d
prayer beads in her han
while going round the
cylinder wheels at the
Jokhag Monastery
OM MANI PADME HOM

13. Monk
with
phon
e

14. This stone is placed at the entrance of the Potala Palace, in Lhasa, with
Palace
information in English, Tibetan, Chinese (traditional and simplificated),
sanscrit and more…

15. Smoke from the yack butter candles burning inside

20. I was told, that the pilgrims believe, that they, by their oscillating and the
spinning of their prayer wheels ,rouse the movements of the planets in the
heavens…

21. …, the
dance
of
the
electro
ns
around
the
nucleu
s
and the
recurri
ng
circle o
f
life.

22. tion
Each revolu
r
of the praye
wheel is as
as
meritorious
reading the
inscription
any
aloud as m
is
times, as it
he
written on t
scroll
This means that the more Om Mani Padme Hum mantras that are inside a
prayer wheel, the more powerful it is

28. This mode of prostration expresses the maximum devotion by
exaggerating the difficulty of their journey

29. A view over the prostrating pilgrims from the top of Joklang Monastery

30. Music: Choral Tibetan
By María
mocampos@gmail.com