Mendicants calling for alms
Tibet in the 1930s: Theos Bernard's Legacy at UC Berkeley
Mendicants calling for alms
Three seated mendicant ascetics in ragged clothes clap and call for alms. Two hand-held ma ni chos ‘khor (prayer wheels) are visible. Tibetan Buddhists turn such prayer wheels continuously in the auspicious (clockwise) direction while chanting mantras, in order to activate the thousands of printed mantras rolled tightly inside them. The mantra “Om Mani Padme Hum” is often engraved in Sanskrit on their cylindrical metal covers.