Accession Number
1959/1.158

Title
Prayer scroll fragment, from a prayer wheel

Artist(s)
Tibetan

Artist Nationality
Tibetan (culture or style)

Object Creation Date
18th century

Medium & Support
red and black ink on paper

Dimensions
2 1/4 in. x 7 in. ( 5.72 cm x 17.78 cm )

Credit Line
Museum Purchase

Subject matter
A fragment of a prayer scroll, that is, the text of a prayer printed in red and black ink on a horizontal strip of paper. Such texts were rolled up and placed inside a Tibetan "prayer wheel," a device that can be set spinning. By setting a prayer wheel in motion, a practitioner symbolically allows the efficacy of the prayer to spin out, as though in a centrifugal pattern, through the cosmos.

Physical Description
A fragment of a horizontal scroll, which would originally have been rolled up and tucked inside a Tibetan prayer wheel, with the text of a prayer printed in red and black ink.

Primary Object Classification
Painting

Primary Object Type
calligraphy

Additional Object Classification(s)
Ritual Object

Collection Area
Asian

Rights
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Keywords
Buddhism
Himalayan
calligraphy (process)
fragments (object portions)
handscrolls
manuscripts (document genre)