“Dedicated to the future births of the beloved grandmother” and other inscriptions on khurde (prayer wheels) in Mongolia and Buryatia

Abstract

The paper dwells upon Buddhist prayer wheel which are wildly spread in the Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism in Central Asia . Prayer wheel ( mong. maanii hurd or nomiin hurd, bur. khurde) spins on its axis and contains sacred Buddhist texts - mantras (mong. maani ) and dharani (mong. tarni ) (pic. 1, 2). Such a maani hurd can be found in various sizes and types, they are installed around monasteries, next to revered objects (mountains, springs, stupas) or on the way to those (pic. 15, 17). In Mongolia and Buryatia, there are many different practices involving these wheels, for example, small hand-held prayer wheels are offered to tankas (images of Buddhist saints) and statues, they are placed on home altars, solar-powered prayer wheels are kept in cars. They are not only used as offerings, but they themselves are the objects to which offerings are made. Food, money, various things (praying beads, books, pendants, broken and unnecessary things, photographs, dunza salt wrapped in paper) are offered to the wheels. Believers put their offerings on the beams that support the prayer wheels (pic. 16). This essay will focus on one of the practices - dedicating a prayer wheel to a deceased ancestor wishing him a better birth. The structure of the texts that the believers write on such wheels will also be addressed in detail.