Mani stone

Creating and carving mani stones as devotional or intentional process art is a traditional sadhana of piety to yidam.

The stones are often painted in symbolic colours for each syllable (om white, ma green, ni yellow, pad light blue, me red, hum dark blue), which may be renewed when they are lost by weathering.

They are built of rubble and sand and faced with mani stones engraved in the elegant Tibetan script.

[4] The same type of mani stones can be seen in neighbouring Nepal, where Buddhism is also widely practised.

Large examples of mani stones resembling tablets carved out of the sides of rock formations are in locations throughout the Nepali areas of the Himalayas, such as Namche Bazar.