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 The Buddhist mantra "Om mani padme hum" has been made out of huge stones on a mountain , known as Lenin Mountain, near Kyzyl. The mantra took one month to build and is 120-metres-long, 20-metres-high It was laid and tied by locals with the help of the Gyudmed Tantric Monastery monks, who are on a visit toTuva.
It is done to hasten the visit of His Holiness Dalai Lama to the republic. One can have a picturesque view on Kyzyl, the capital of Tuva, from the top of this mountain. 500 kg of white paint was used to paint the stones. "Tibetan Buddhists usually engrave holy mantras on the stones. A great many of them can be seen on the mountainous slopes and passes", as Tupten Shakia, the Tibetan monk group leader, explained. However, there is hardly such a huge mantra made of big stones even in Tibet, he noted.
The tradition of writing of stones on the mountainous slopes was spread in the Soviet times. Schoolchildren and students wrote the motto "Glory to the Communist Party!" on the even slopes. One could have read the name of Lenin on the top of the mountain, which could be seen well from any place in Kyzyl, recently. In the 90s the word "Lenin" was changed into "Dogee", which was the real name of the mountain, as Tuvan perestroika apologists believed.
 The mantra "om mani padme hum" is not a mere prayer to Buddha of Compassion. In accordance with Buddhist holy texts, it has the holy power of his blessing and love. In this sense a mantra, either written or pronounced, is the god itself, which revealed itself in this world to help all the creatures. "Everyone who can see, hear, or read this holy mantra gets blessing from the Buddha of Compassion...", Tupten Shakia says, "And the wind, which touches the stones making the mantra on Dogee slope will carry its blessing further as a gift to all the life forms on its way".
The mantra construction of the Buddha of Compassion, whose embodiment on the Earth is His Holiness Dalai Lama, started when the spiritual leader of the Buddhists visited Mongolia, the neighboring country. The mantra capable of accumulation and spreading of tremendous positive energy was built with a wish of longevity to Dalai Lama and prayers for spiritual merits of Tuvan people to help to remove the obstacles preventing the meeting of Buddhist Tuva with its spiritual teacher.
It is worth mentioning that Tibetan monks of Gyudmed Monastery arrived in Tuva by invitation of Kamba Lama Spiritual Directorate of the republic and the public fund "Enerel" (Compassion), which took up the coordination of construction works of the mantra a big prayer drum, which is to be erected on the central square in Kyzyl soon.
Tomorrow at 10 a.m. the stone mantra will be sanctified.
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Culture 
