機械旋轉效能：拉薩、加德滿都、達蘭薩拉的轉經筒墊圈觀察研究

Efficacy through Mechanical Rotation: Observations of Prayer Wheel Wear Pads from Lhasa, Kathmandu, and Dharamshala

轉經筒是藏文化中極為突出的宗教物品之一，其結構由神聖與普通物件共同組成，核心是實現關鍵「經咒」的閱讀動作。本研究聚焦於轉經筒元件中的「墊圈」，探討其因機械化重複旋轉而逐漸磨損至失去實用功能的過程，從而分析轉經筒的機械技術如何為損耗後的舊墊圈賦予新的宗教價值，即機械旋轉創造出的「效能」。透過對拉薩、加德滿都和達蘭薩拉三地的實地觀察與深度訪談，本研究揭示了磨損後的非功能性墊圈所經歷的豐富且獨特的生命歷程。在藏文化中，這些舊墊圈被認為在長期使用過程中積累了無量的功德、好運與祝福。因此，當墊圈因持續旋轉而磨損耗盡後，藏人不會將其隨意丟棄，而是透過回收、交換、出售、捐贈、改造、保存、火化或埋葬等多種方式，賦予其新的生命意義。這不僅體現了藏人對物品循環利用的智慧，更彰顯了其對精神價值的深刻理解。

This article examines the essential role of technology in religious practice, challenging the typical distinction between religion and technology as separate domains. Here, technology is understood as a broad, dynamic category encompassing a range of tools, knowledge, and objects—from simple, everyday instruments to highly complex devices like robots and space shuttles. By defining technology inclusively, this article aims to show how religious practices rely on tools in ways that are not always recognized within conventional notions of technology. The article focuses on a technology prominent within the Tibetan cultural sphere: the prayer wheel. A prayer wheel is a composite device consisting of both sacred and ordinary components, which together enable the rotation of sacred texts. Defining the prayer wheel as a form of technology allows us to highlight how religious practice depends on various tools, and to challenge the idea that technology is limited to advanced devices. The prayer wheel, in this case, is a simple mechanism whose main purpose is to automate a repetitive action—specifically, rotation. By defining technology as any device that performs a mechanical action to produce a specific outcome (in this case, merit, blessings, and good fortune), the article argues that technologies used in religious practices, like the prayer wheel, are not just tools for mediating sacred experiences but are also means of producing religious efficacy. In Tibetan Buddhist practice, this efficacy is believed to accumulate and even store within one specific component of the prayer wheel: the wear pad. This pad, which becomes polished and worn through continuous use, embodies what the article terms“efficacious technology”. The wear pad’s ability to accumulate religious potency through repeated, mechanical contact with the prayer wheel drum exemplifies how certain technologies are seen as effective in a religious context, beyond mere mediation. The article first traces the historical origins of this technology, beginning with a Chinese predecessor that involved a rotating bookcase holding sacred texts. This historical perspective sets the stage for understanding the prayer wheel as a simple yet profound device that has been invested with sacred significance. Following this, the article deconstructs the components of the prayer wheel to reveal how its apparently simple technology achieves a profound impact in the eyes of practitioners, as it continuously generates merit through mechanized action. The ethnographic portion of this study is based on fieldwork involving observations and conversations with Tibetan Buddhists in Lhasa, Kathmandu, and Dharamsala. These ethnographic encounters focus on the wear pad, a small but essential component of the prayer wheel. As the drum of the prayer wheel rotates against the wear pad, the pad is gradually polished to the point of becoming non-functional in terms of supporting rotation. Observations and interviews in Tibetan communities reveal that, when wear pads reach this state of disuse, they are not simply discarded; instead, they are seen as having absorbed the sacredness of the prayer wheel’s practice and thus take on a new trajectory as independent, sacred objects. The article explores how these worn-down wear pads can have diverse afterlives. Some Tibetans believe that the wear pads have been blessed through continuous use in prayer wheel practice. Consequently, these individuals may recycle, repurpose, upcycle, store, cremate, or even bury these pads. This is notable because the wear pads, which have no inherent sacredness before use, are transformed into sacred objects through their involvement in religious practice. This transformation highlights the role of the prayer wheel not just as a mediator of belief but as a producer of sacred value. The ethnographic accounts from Lhasa, Kathmandu, and Dharamsala emphasize that these seemingly mundane and insignificant wear pads hold a central role in prayer wheel practice, as they are perceived to absorb the sacred essence of the prayer wheel’s scroll through continuous contact. What may initially appear to be an unremarkable object is, in fact, a key component of religious technology, accumulating sacred value through the simple, repetitive action of rotation. This process illustrates a unique form of technological efficacy in which a basic mechanical action produces more than just physical movement; it generates spiritual merit and blessings. In conclusion, this case study challenges the limited understanding of technology as strictly material or functional, proposing instead that practitioners use religious technologies like the prayer wheel to carry the capacity to create, accumulate, and even store sacred power over time.