Mani stones, Diskit Monastery, India.
Photo www.amisingplanet.com.
Normally
we students of rock art think of our subject as a branch of art history -
something interesting that belongs to the past, but that is not always true.
There is a form of rock art that is not only contemporary, but people are still
earning a living by producing it - Buddhist Mani Stones. Most common in Tibet,
but also found in neighboring India, Nepal, and Bhutan, Mani stones are a
corporeal prayer, essentially a permanent supplication for blessing and enlightenment.
Mani stones, Kutsapternga, Nepal.
Photo www.amusingplanet.com.
"Mani
stones are stone plates, rocks and/or pebbles carved or inscribed with the six
syllabled mantra of Avalokiteshvara (Om mani padme hum, hence the name
"Mani stone"), as a form of prayer in Tibetan Buddhism. The term Mani
stone may also be used in a loose sense to refer to stones on which any mantra
or devotional designs (such as ashtamangala) are inscribed. Mani stones are
intentionally placed along the roadsides and rovers or placed together to form
mounds or cairns or sometimes long walls, as an offering to spirits of place or
genius loci. Creating and carving mani stones as a devotional or intentional
process is a traditional sadhana of piety to vidam. Many stones are a form of
devotional cintamani. The preferred technique is sunk relief, where an area
around each letter is carved out, leaving the letters at the original surface
level, now higher than the background. The stones are often painted in symbolic
colors for each syllable (om white, ma green, ni yellow, pad
light blue, me red, hum dark blue) which may be renewed when they
are lost by weathering." (Wikipedia 1)
Mani stones, Ladakh, India.
Photo www.amusingplanet.com.
The
most common inscription on Mani stones is the Buddhist mantra "Om Mani
Padme Hum."
"The
first word Aum/Om is a sacred syllable in various Indian religions. The word
means 'jewel' or 'bead', Padme is the 'lotus flower (the Buddhist sacred
flower), and Hum represents the spirit of enlightenment."
(Wikipedia 2)
"Carving
Mani stones is considered a form of meditation. Monks make them and so do local
villagers, and add them to mounds which grow bigger and bigger as time passes
by. The Jiana Mani Stone Mound in Xinzhai Village, of Yushu Tibetan Autonomous
Prefecture in China grew just like that." (Patowary
2015)
Yushu Jiana Mani stone mound,
Xinzhai Village, Yushu Tibetan
Autonomous Prefecture, China.
Photo tibetpedia.com.
"Yushu
Jiana Mani stone mound is the largest Mani stone mound in the world. It's said
that the local Tibetan Buddhist Master Jaina built a small Mani stone mound 300
years ago. Since then, people kept putting more Mani stones on the to pray and
collect merit. Now it has around 200 million stones, is 300 meters long, 3 meters
high, and 80 meters wide." (Tibetpedia 2017)
Mani stone carver,
Internet photo, Public domain.
"Mani
stones can be seen in neighboring countries of Nepal and Bhutan as well, where
Buddhism is also widely practiced. Large examples of Mani stones resembling
tablets carved out of the sides of rock formations are in locations throughout
the Nepali areas of the Himalayas. Mani stones are also found around
monasteries in India, the true place of origin of the mantra where it was
orally transmitted through many generations. It is not known when the mantra came
into use, but the earliest recorded mentions of it occurred in the late 10th
and early 11th centuries in the Karandavyuha Sutra, which itself was compiled
at the end of the 4th century from an even earlier source." (Patowary
2015)
Mani stone vendor,
Internet photo, Public domain.
So,
not only are Mani stones a form of hard rock prayer, they are a demonstration
of devotion through sacrifice, either by putting in the work to create one, or
the money spent to purchase one, and a permanent offering for continued
blessing. A modern form of decorative rock art with a very serious meaning and
purpose, and supporting a class of contemporary professional rock art carvers.
NOTE:
Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for
public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public
domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner
will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should
read the original reports at the sites listed below.
REFERENCES:
Patowary,
Kaushik
2015 The
Sacred Mani Stones of Buddhists, amusingplanet.com
TibetPedia
2017 Mani
Stones, June 29, 2017, https://tibetpedia.com/lifestyle/mani-stones/
Wikipedia
(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mani-stone
(2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Om_mani_padme_hum
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