Editing Prayer wheel (section)

== Origins and history ==
[[File:Prayer Wheels.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|A little boy rolling the prayer wheels at [[Swayambhunath]], Nepal]]
The first prayer wheels, which are driven by wind, have been used in [[Tibet]] and [[China]] since the fourth century.<ref>{{cite book |last=Lucas |first=Adam |title=Wind, Water, Work: Ancient and Medieval Milling Technology |year=2006 |publisher=Brill Publishers |page=105 |isbn=90-04-14649-0}}</ref> The concept of the prayer wheel is a physical manifestation of the phrase "turning the wheel of [[Dharma]]", which describes the way in which the [[Gautama Buddha|Buddha]] taught.

Historians, such as {{ill|Ferdinand D. Lessing|fr|Ferdinand Lessing|de|Ferdinand Lessing|sv|Ferdinand Lessing}}, have argued that the prayer wheels developed from Chinese revolving [[bookcase]]s ({{lang-zh|t=轉輪藏|p=zhuàn lún zàng}}), popular among Buddhist monasteries.{{sfn|Goodrich|1942}}

According to the Tibetan tradition, the prayer wheel lineage traces back to the famous Indian master, [[Nagarjuna]]. Tibetan texts also say that the practice was taught by the Indian Buddhist masters [[Tilopa]] and [[Naropa]] as well as the Tibetan masters [[Marpa Lotsawa|Marpa]] and [[Milarepa]].<ref>{{cite book |title=The Wheel of Great Compassion: The Practice of the Prayer Wheel in Tibetan Buddhism |publisher=Wisdom Publications |date=2000}}</ref> Kawaguchi mentions in his book that the prayer wheel originated in the Mani [[Lhakhang]] where [[Je Tsongkhapa]] invented it.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kawaguchi |first1=Ekai |title=Three Years In Tibet|journal=Nature |year=1910 |volume=82 |issue=2098 |page=301 |doi=10.1038/082301a0 |bibcode=1910Natur..82..301W |s2cid=3983162 }}</ref>

Prayer wheels originated{{contradictory inline|date=November 2021}} from ‘The School of Shakyamuni sutra, volume 3 – pagoda and temple’{{dubious|reason=What's the original Chinese title? There seems to be no independent verification that this sutra even exists, let alone originated prayer wheels, in English; all online mentions simply repeat this quote from btrts.org.sg, often without attribution, but even btrts.org.sg has apparently removed this assertion from their website, and it was only present on the English page, not the Chinese equivalent.|date=November 2021}} which states that:
{{Blockquote|“those who set up the place for worship, use the knowledge to propagate the dharma to common people, should there be any man or woman who are illiterate and unable to read the sutra, they should then set up the prayer wheel to facilitate those illiterate to chant the sutra, and the effect is the same as reading the sutra”<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.btrts.org.sg/roof |title=Vairocana Buddha Prayer Wheel |publisher=Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum |access-date=2013-03-31 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130729225142/http://www.btrts.org.sg/roof |archive-date=2013-07-29 |url-status=dead }}</ref>{{better source needed|date=November 2021}}}}

Another theory is that rotating mantras relate to numerous yogic or Tantric practices whereby the Tantric practitioner visualizes the mantra revolving around his or her [[Nadi (yoga)|nadis]] and especially around the meridian [[chakra]]s such as the heart and crown. The prayer wheels are a visual aid for developing the capacity for these types of Tantric visualizations.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.namgyalmonastery.org/tibetan-temple/tibetan-prayer-wheel/ |title=Tibetan Prayer wheel. |publisher=namgyalmonastery.org |access-date=2022-08-03 }}</ref>