Landscape Mantra

I stumbled on this recently. A mantra marked out in Tibetan letters on the side of a hill near the town of Zhongdian in Yunan Province, China. The letters look to be 10-20 metres tall.

The mantra is Manñjuśrī's

oṃ aḥ ra pa tsa na dhīḥ


The Chinese text is 松赞林寺 which apparently translates as "Sumtseling Monastery". Nearby is an Avalokiteśvara mantra.

Earlier I posted another Google map of the Avalokiteśvara mantra carved into a frozen lake.

Spelling Manjusri, and Devanagari

Mafalda wrote in recently to ask about the spelling of the name Mañjuśrī and what it and the associated mantra look like in Devanāgarī. Here is my reply:

Manjusri the bodhisattva is spelt with a long final i (ie ī sometimes written ii) - mañjuśrī. Mañjuśrī in devanāgarī is मञ्जुश्री or मंजुश्री (i.e. maṃjuśrī - this is how you'd write it in Sanskrit, but it would still be pronounced the same because ṃ before j is assumed to be ñ).

The mantra (oṃ a ra pa ca na dhīḥ) is ओं अ र प च न धीः
Note this is oṃ not auṃ - generally speaking Buddhists use oṃ (short o sound) whereas Hindus use auṃ (long au). They sound similar, and nobody pronounces it as written anyway. Auṃ would be written either औं or ॐ

Do write to me if you have a question and I'll do my best to answer it.

Mañjuśrī and Arapacana

I've rejigged the info relating to Mañjuśrī and Arapacana. I wanted to add some Mañjuśrī mantras and this would have made his page a bit unwieldy. So I have split off the material that relates only to the Arapacana alphabet onto a new page. I've added the Vagiśvara mantra, and one that I discovered recently on Glenn Wallis's website which is also related to Mañjuśrī's role as Lord of Speech. So now there are three pages to consult:

• Mañjuśrī and Mañjughoṣa - material relating to the mantra of the Bodhisattva
• The Arapacana Alphabet and it's history
• Meditating on the Wisdom Alphabet with reference to the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra

ARAPACANA

Over on my blog Jayarava Rave I've published a short article about the mantra of Manjusri and why syllables are considered to have a magical power. In such a short space it is difficult to do more than introduce a few ideas, but hopefully it will spark something off if you have an interest in that mantra.