2-979-620 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"Prayer Wheel" in Cashmere, 1857. '...the interior of a Lama Temple, with a prayer-wheel at work. These wheels are about ten feet high by eight or ten in diameter, made of large rolls of cloth, on which the Lama faith is written, and inclosed in a wooden case painted all over with facetious and not very correct representations of gods, devils, &c. They turn on a pivot, and are pulled round by a strap in the manner represented; the Lamas fancying themselves on the high road to heaven all the time, pulling day and night, and not having time in consequence to wash'. From "Illustrated London News", 1857.