´óÏó´«Ã½

Home and temple

Buddhist worship

Buddhist temple, Khatmandu, Nepal

Buddhists can worship both at home or at a temple. It is not considered essential to go to a temple to worship with others.

At home

Buddhists will often set aside a room or a part of a room as a shrine. There will be a statue of Buddha, candles, and an incense burner.

Temples

Buddhist temples come in many shapes. Perhaps the best known are the pagodas of China and Japan.

Another typical Buddhist building is the Stupa, which is a stone structure built over what are thought to be relics of the Buddha, or over copies of the Buddha's teachings.

Buddhist temples are designed to symbolise the five elements:

• Fire
• Air
• Earth, symbolised by the square base
• Water
• Wisdom, symbolised by the pinnacle at the top

All Buddhist temples contain an image or a statue of Buddha.

Worship

There are as many forms of Buddhist worship as there are schools of Buddhism - and there are many of those.

Worship in Mahayana tradition takes the form of devotion to Buddha and to Bodhisattvas.

Worshippers may sit on the floor barefoot facing an image of Buddha and chanting. They will listen to monks chanting from religious texts, perhaps accompanied by instruments, and take part in prayers.

Mantras and prayer

Mantras

Woman spinning prayer wheels

A mantra is a word, a syllable, a phrase or a short prayer that is spoken once or repeated over and over again (either aloud or in a person's head) and that is thought to have a profound spiritual effect on the person.

A very well known mantra is the mantra of Avalokiteshvara: om mani padme hum. This is sometimes said to mean "Behold! The jewel in the lotus!", but this translation isn't much help - the phrase isn't really translatable because of the richness of meaning and symbolism it contains.

Physical prayer aids

Prayer wheel. Photo: Christine Gonsalves ©

It's common to use prayer beads to mark the number of repetitions of a mantra.

Mantras may also be displayed on a prayer wheel and repeated by spinning the wheel, or written on a prayer flag - in which case the prayer is repeated each time the flag moves in the wind.

Prayer wheels can be tiny things that a Buddhist carries with them or enormous objects up to nine feet high found in monasteries.

These physical prayer devices are very common in Tibetan Buddhist communities.

Find out more

• In pictures: Prayer aids
• In pictures: Sacred mandala