photo: Tibetan lama, circa 1920s.
A Tibetan Lama holds a prayer wheel and five prong drilbu (bell). Seen worn around his neck is a conch shell mala, a protection amulet encased in leather and a group of circular conch or chank shell bead amulets that were probably created from countless rotations of his own prayer wheel. The drum of the prayer wheel sits on a bamboo tube and over time this drills into the conch disc to form a ready-made bead amulet. These conch beads are treated with great reverence and they are believed to be imbued with the power of milllions of mantras that were activated by the spinning of the prayer wheel. Once the bamboo has drilled through the conch disc they are typically strung on cord and worn around the neck or used as a mala. The conch disc is then replaced with a fresh one and the whole process starts again.
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