Picture of Pile of prayer stones or mani (Jyekundo/Yushu, China)

Some of the millions of prayer stones piled up at Gyanak Mani

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Not just home to the largest collection of prayer stones in Tibet, but also one of the best koras, Gyanak Mani is a must-see for anyone in the area.
One of the large indoor prayer wheels was being repainted by a team of prayer-wheel-painters. While the wall around Gyanak Mani had the common bronze-coloured prayer wheels, there were other large prayer wheels towering above the pilgrims. Eventually, I sat down just to see the constant stream of pilgrims passing by - few of them prostrating, most turning the prayer wheels while keeping their own hand-held prayer wheels in motion, while a few just walked past. Sitting there for a while made me realize that pilgrims were actually walking many laps: I continued recognizing faces. The more circumambulations you do, the better it is of course. Most pilgrims do 3, 13 or even 108 circuits of a kora, the latter being an ominous number for Tibetan Buddhists. Walkinf a kora is, in a way, very smbolic of the cyclical nature of Buddhism. No matter how relaxed they seemed, the Tibetans I saw on this kora were all obviously determined on their way around Gyanak Mani.
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