The Horniman Museum will be closed from 24-26 December. The Horniman Gardens will be closed 25 December only.
Mantra roll consisting of a rolled length of paper wrapped in a piece of white cotton. The inscription indicates that the mantra is dedicated to the god of wealth.
In Tibetan Buddhism mantra rolls like this example could be used to fill sacred objects. Their incorporation into such objects would be accompanied by a blessing from a lama which served to 'activate' the object, transforming it from an everyday object to something with sacred capacity.
These objects are only a part of our collections, of which there are more than 350,000 objects. This information comes from our collections database. Some of this is incomplete and there may be errors. This part of the website is also still under construction, so there may be some fields repeated or incorrectly formatted information.
The database sometimes uses language taken from historical documents to help research, which may now appear outdated and even offensive. The database also includes information on objects that are considered secret or sacred by some communities.
If you have any further information about objects in our collections or can suggest corrections to our information, please contact us: enquiry@horniman.ac.uk
