Tibetan prayer wheel - Tibet - First half 20th century

Authentic early to mid-20th Tibetan prayer wheel with written prayer mantras inside the prayer wheel.
The wood shows a patina, consistent with age and use.

A prayer wheel is a cylindrical wheel. With a mantra written in Tibetan script. According to the Tibetan Buddhist tradition on the lineage texts, spinning a prayer wheel will have the same meritorious effect as orally reciting the prayers.