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Throughout the year, too, special rituals are performed to propitiate deities, to precipitate rain, to avert hailstorms, diseases, and death, to ensure good harvests, to exorcise demons and evil spirits, and of course to destroy the passions of the mind and, ultimately, the ego. All these practices-whether occult, magical, or shamanistic, require various implements which are as important as the images of the deities in whose service they are employed. Each such object is pregnant with symbolic meaning and is frequently imbued with magical power and potency.
Some of the important ritual items in Tibetan Buddhism are:
The Vajra or Thunderbolt, also known in Tibetan as dorje
The Bell, known in Sanskrit as the Ghanta, and in Tibetan as dril bu
The Phurpa (Ritual Dagger)
The Skull Cup, known as kapala in Sanskrit
The Curved Knife or Chopper
Bowls
Kettles to Hold Sacred Waters
Butter Lamps for Offering
Skulls for Esoteric Tantric Practices
Incense Holders
Prayer Wheels (Hand-held and for the Altar)
Gaus (Portable Shrines)
Trumpets
Damaru (Double Drum)
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