Mandala Offering Set

This traditional ritual object is a set specifically for offering the universe to the Three Jewels: the Buddha, his teachings, and the religious community, including teachers, all the buddhas and bodhisattvas, and personal meditational deities. The practitioner recites verses of the offering ritual and fills each level of the set with rice, gems, coins, flowers, or other offering substances to build up or construct the whole universe they imagine. The practice is said to accumulate religious merit. The visualized universe follows the ancient Indic conventions, with Mount Mehru at the center, surrounded by continents, subcontinents, the ocean, and so on. The pieces of the set are decorated with auspicious symbols and include a base, three flat rings, and finial. The base is manually and ritually cleaned in the beginning of the ritual, then offerings are heaped on it in a specific order and at prescribed points. As the ritual progresses, the three rings are added one by one and filled with offerings, and the finial tops the completed mandala of the whole universe. The practitioner offers it with both hands while reciting verses.