Accession Number
1987/1.195.13

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 very thin paper

Dimensions
2 1/8 in. x 3 in. ( 5.4 cm x 7.6 cm )

Credit Line
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Milton B. Freudenheim in memory of Otto F. Ege

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
Vajrayana
text (layout feature)