A WOODEN PRAYER WHEEL PENDANT

a long time ago, we thought that we should try and make a small wooden prayer wheel like the ones made from silver that are on the market, but we never got around to it...

some time ago, we were asked by a good friend to try and make them, if it where possible because he has never seen one on the market and wondered if there was a reason why...

that rekindled a long forgotten fire!

we gave it a shot and it came out stunning!

i must say that there is a reason why they are not on the market, it is so hard to lathe such a small prayer wheel! and to paint it is even harder!

but, non the less, here it is!
hope you like it!

a more artistic prayer wheel..

since my wife is such a talented artist (she dosen't think so), i told her to do some real art work on one prayer wheel, she was a little reluctant, but i told her that if Ican make them to what shape i think, she can do an amazing custom art work on them... she finaly agreed.

and here it is!

tibetan prayer wheel project: how it all started

Well, it all started when I saw Garchen Rinpoche when he came to give a seminar in Israel. Rinpoche had an amazingly beautiful wooden handheld prayer wheel in his hand, and he never stopped turning it…

Later, I met Martin Dobesh, and he started to tell me about a project that he wishes to do, it was a big project concerning the construction of a big stationary prayer wheel. Martin asked me to help him with the technical aspects of the project, and from there, things started rolling….My older brother, Lior, started to tell me about the benefits of constructing prayer wheels, and suggested that I put my hands on the book: "Great Wheel of Compassion", which, lucky enough for me was one of my mom's books… I immediately sat down and started to read. By the time I was done reading, my heart was jumping with joy! What an amazing idea it is to construct these wheels! I was very thankful to have been approached by Martin… little did I know where all this is going…Now came the next step, talking to the Masters to get their approval for this project. This took some time because they are so busy, and don't get to talk to their foreign students much. The answer from my root guru, Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche didn't take too long to arrive and it was along the lines of:

"I approve from my inner heart that you can go ahead with your project. The most important thing is you should have good motivation to build prayer wheels. With good motivation, whatever work you do will be good for all. So if you have good motivation then you can move forward smoothly in this project".

Needless to explain how happy I was!.With the approval of my master things got rolling… it took me about 3 months to find good wood to lathe, and many phone calls later I had my wood. The mantra that fits in the wheels comes from America from a most wonderful man called Jim McCann, who got an order from Lama Zopa Rinpoche to construct prayer wheels… he then got a master reel of mantras from his holiness the Dalai Lama, and he makes microfilms from that reel made to order.

I am still in the process of refining my work (still haven’t found the perfect design) and I decided to make the wheels in the 100 million and 35 million sizes. My master plan was and still is, to make these wheels and sell them at cost plus a little profit, and to collect the little profit I make on them and when I have enough money, to construct big prayer wheels and donate them to hospitals and such places that need blessings… Since I make them with the help of my darling wife, and since we make them one by one manually, this takes time… so I am guessing that if people start to get interested in buying these wheels they will have to go on a waiting list… we do this as an "after work" project so it takes us even longer since we both have a full time jobs…