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Consecration of Stupas, Statues, Tsatsas1, and Other Sacred Images

Printable Materials​

Maṅgala​

Blessing.

Mālā​

Recite the prayer, gently blow on the mālā and rub it lightly.
oṃ rucirā maṇi pravartamānaye svāhā॥
3x

The prayer beads blessing.

माला
ॐ रुचिरा मणि प्रवर्तमानये स्वाहा॥

Japa​

oṃ sambhara sambhara vimānasara mahājapa hūṃ । oṃ smara smara vimānaskara mahājapa hūṃ॥
3x

The prayer blessing.

जप
ॐ सांभारा सांभारा विमानसारा महाजप हूं । ॐ स्मरा स्मरा विमानस्कारा महाजप हूं॥

Dharma​

oṃ dhuru dhuru jayaṃukḥe svāhā॥
3x

The virtue blessing.

धर्म
ॐ धुरु धुरु जयामुखे स्वाहा॥

Namaskāra​

oṃ namo mañjuśrīye । namo suśrīye । namo uttamaśrīye svāhā॥
3x

The prostration blessing.

नमस्कार
ॐ: नमो मंजुश्रिये । नमो सुश्रिये । नमो उत्तमश्रिये स्वाहा:॥

Śaraṇagamana Cittotpāda Gāthā​

buddhaṁ ca dharmaṁ ca gaṇottamaṁ ca । yāvaddhi bodhiṁ śaraṇaṁ prayāmi । dānādi kṛtyaścā kṛtaiḥ mayāebhīḥ buddho । bhāvyaṁ jagato hitāya॥
3x

A verse for taking refuge and giving rise to bodhicitta. It expresses the practitioner's commitment to rely on the Three Jewels and to cultivate the altruistic intention to attain awakening for the benefit of all beings. Recited at the beginning of Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna practices, it establishes the foundation of refuge and compassion that supports all subsequent meditation and activity.

शरणगमनचित्तोत्पादगाथा
बुद्धं च धर्मं च गणोत्तमं च यावद्धि बोधिं शरणं प्रयामि । दानादिकृत्यैश्च कृतैर्मयैभिर्बुद्धो भवेयं जगतो हिताय॥

Catvāry Apramāṇāni​

sattvāḥ sukhena samprayujyeran । sattvā duḥkhena viyujyeran । sattvāḥ sukhena na viyujyeran । sattvāḥ hitaṁ labheran॥
3x

The four immeasurables: maitrī, karuṇā, muditā, and upekṣā.

चत्वार्यप्रमाणानि
सत्त्वाः सुखेन सम्प्रयुज्येरन् । सत्त्वा दुःखेन वियुज्येरन् । सत्त्वाः सुखेन न वियुज्येरन् । सत्त्वाः हितं लभेरन्॥

Prajñāpāramitā Hṛdaya​

oṃ gate gate pāragate pārasaṃgate bodhi svāhā॥
7x

All Buddhas of the three ages (past, present and future) rely on the Perfection of Wisdom to reach unexcelled complete Enlightenment. The Perfection of Wisdom is the all powerful prayer, able to dispel all suffering.

Oṃ Gone, Gone, Everyone gone to the other shore, Awakening, So Be It!

प्रज्ञापारमिताहृदय
ॐ गते गते पारगते पारसंगते बोधि स्वाहा॥

Śūnyatā​

oṃ svabhāva śuddhā sarva dharmāḥ svabhāva śuddho 'ham॥
7x

The Buddha nature. This mantra recalls the intrinsic purity of all phenomena and of one's own mind. By reciting it, practitioners remember that all dharmas are empty and pure by nature, cutting through confusion and ego-grasping. It brings awareness into the present moment, settles the mind, and opens the way to recognizing the natural clarity that has always been there.

शून्यता
ॐ स्वभाव शुद्धाः सर्व धर्माः स्वभाव शुद्धो ऽहं॥

Āhvāna​

chok chu na zhukpé sangyé dang chang chub sempa tamché dak la gong su sol।
ji si namkhé ta dang nyampé semchen tamché mi népé nya ngen lé dépé sa la ma zhak gi bar du gyalwa nam nya ngen lé mi dawar tenpar zhuk su sol।
khyepar du yang ku sung tuk kyi ten di nam ji si jungwa zhi'i nöpé ma zhik gi bar du tenpar zhuk su sol।
tenpar zhuk né kyang dak dang sem chen tamché la chok dang tün mong gi ngö drup ma lü pa tsal du sol॥
3x
Invocation and Request.

All Buddhas and Bodhisattvas abiding in the ten directions, please pay attention to us!
Until all sentient beings, as infinite as the space itself, are brought to the state of perfect nirvāṇa beyond extremes, may all the victorious ones remain here constantly, without passing into nirvāṇa!
In particular, may the victorious ones remain here until the four elements destroy these representations of enlightened body, speech, and mind.
And, as the victorious ones remain here, please grant us and all other beings all the supreme and ordinary siddhis!

ཕྱོགས་བཅུ་ན་བཞུགས་པའི་སངས་རྒྱས་དང་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་ཐམས་ཅད་བདག་ལ་དགོངས་སུ་གསོལ།
ཇི་སྲིད་ནམ་མཁའི་མཐའ་དང་མཉམ་པའི་སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་མི་གནས་པའི་མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པའི་ས་ལ་མ་བཞག་གི་བར་དུ་རྒྱལ་བ་རྣམས་མྱ་ངན་ལས་མི་འདའ་བར་བརྟན་པར་བཞུགས་སུ་གསོལ།
ཁྱད་པར་དུ་ཡང་སྐུ་གསུང་ཐུགས་ཀྱི་རྟེན་འདི་རྣམས་ལ་ཇི་སྲིད་འབྱུང་བ་བཞིའི་གནོད་པས་མ་ཞིག་གི་བར་དུ་བརྟན་པར་བཞུགས་སུ་གསོལ།
བརྟན་པར་བཞུགས་ནས་ཀྱང་བདག་དང་སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ་མཆོག་དང་ཐུན་མོང་གི་དངོས་གྲུབ་མ་ལུས་པ་སྩལ་དུ་གསོལ༎

Pratītyasamutpāda Samudaya Nirodha​

avijjā paccayā saṅkhārā । saṅkhāra paccayā viññāṇaṁ।
viññāṇa paccayā nāmarūpaṁ । nāma rūpa paccayā saḷāyatanaṁ।
saḷāyatana paccayā phasso । phassa paccayā vedanā।
vedanā paccayā taṇhā । taṇhā paccayā upādānaṁ।
upādāna paccayā bhavo । bhava paccayā jāti।
jāti paccayā jarā maraṇaṁ soka parideva dukkha domanassupāyāsā sambhavanti।
evametassa kevalassa dukkhakhandassa samudayo hoti।

avijjāyatveva asesa virāga nirodhā saṅkhāra nirodho । saṅkhāra nirodhā viññāna nirodho।
viññāna nirodhā nāmarūpa nirodho । nāmarūpa nirodhā saḷāyatana nirodho।
saḷāyatana nirodhā phassa nirodho । phassa nirodhā vedanā nirodho।
vedanā nirodhā taṇhā nirodho । taṇhā nirodhā upādāna nirodho।
upādāna nirodhā bhava nirodho । bhava nirodhā jāti nirodho।
jāti nirodhā jarā maraṇaṁ soka parideva dukkha domanassupāyāsā nirujjhanti।
evametassa kevalassa dukkhakhandhassa nirodho hoti॥

The Arising and Cessation of Causality (nidāna).

Dependent on ignorance, arises formations.
Dependent on formations, arises consciousness.
Dependent on consciousness, arises mentality-materiality.
Dependent on mentality-materiality, arise the six-sense bases.
Dependent on the six-sense bases, arises contact.
Dependent on contact, arises feeling.
Dependent on feeling, arises craving.
Dependent on craving, arises clinging.
Dependent on clinging, arises the arranging of kamma.
Dependent on the arranging of kamma, arises birth.
Dependent on birth, arises aging, death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief and despair.
Thus, there is the arising of this whole mass of suffering.

Through the entire cessation of ignorance, formations cease.
Through the cessation of formations, consciousness ceases.
Through the cessation of consciousness, mentality-materiality ceases.
Through the cessation of mentality-materiality, the six-sense bases cease.
Through the cessation of the six-sense bases, contact ceases.
Through the cessation of contact, feeling ceases.
Through the cessation of feeling, craving ceases.
Through the cessation of craving, clinging ceases.
Through the cessation of clinging, the arranging of kamma ceases.
Through the cessation of the arranging of kamma, birth ceases.
Through the cessation of birth, aging, death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief and despair ceases.
Thus, there is the cessation of this whole mass of suffering.

प्रतीत्यसमुत्पाद समुदय निरोध
अविज्जा-पच्चया संखारा । संखार-पच्चया विज्ञाणं।
विज्ञाण-पच्चया नामरूपं । नामरूप-पच्चया सळायतनं।
सळायतन-पच्चया फस्सो । फस्स-पच्चया वेदना।
वेदना-पच्चया तण्हा । तण्हा-पच्चया उपादानं।
उपादान-पच्चया भवो । भव-पच्चया जाति।
जाति-पच्चया जरामरणं-सोक-परिदेव-दुक्ख-दोमनस्सुपायासा सम्भवन्ति।
एवमेतस्स केवलस्स दुक्खक्खन्धस्स समुदयो होति।

अविज्जाय त्वेव असेस विराग-निरोधा संखार-निरोधो । संखार-निरोधा विज्ञाण-निरोधो।
विज्ञाण-निरोधा नामरूप-निरोधो । नामरूप-निरोधा सळायतन-निरोधो।
सळायतन-निरोधा फस्स-निरोधो । फस्स-निरोधा वेदना-निरोधो।
वेदना-निरोधा तण्हा-निरोधो । तण्हा-निरोधा उपादान-निरोधो।
उपादान-निरोधा भव-निरोधो । भव-निरोधा जाति-निरोधो।
जाति-निरोधा जरामरणं-सोक-परिदेव-दुक्ख-दोमनस्सुपायासा निरुज्झन्ति।
एवमेतस्स केवलस्स दुक्खक्खन्धस्स निरोधो होति ति॥

Anekajāti Gāthā​

anekajāti saṃsāraṃ । sandhāvissaṃ anibbisaṃ । gahakārakaṁ gavesanto । dukkhā jāti punappunaṃ।
gahakāraka diṭṭhosi । puna gehaṃ na kāhasi । sabbā te phāsukā bhaggā । gahakūṭaṃ visaṅkhataṃ । visaṅkhāra gataṃ cittaṃ । taṇhānaṃ khayamajjhagā॥

The Buddha Auspicious Victories Verses.

Through many births I wandered in saṃsāra, seeking, but not finding the builder of this house, painful is repeated existence!
Householder, you are seen now, you must build no house again, your rafters are broken, and your ridge pole is shattered, to dissolution goes my mind, achieved is the destruction of craving.

अनेकजाति गाथा
अनेकजातिसंसारं । सन्धाविस्सं अनिब्बिसं । गहकारं गवेसन्तो । दुक्खा जाति पुनप्पुनं।
गहकारक दिट्ठोसि । पुन गेहं न काहसि । सब्बा ते फासुका भग्गा । गहकूटं विसङ्खतं । विसङ्खारगतं चित्तं । तण्हानं खयमज्झगा॥

Pratītyasamutpāda Gāthā​

ye dharmā hetuprabhavā hetuṃ teṣāṃ tathāgata uvāca । teṣāṃ-ca yo nirodha evaṃvādi mahāśramaṇaḥ । ajñānāc cīyate karma janmanaḥ karma kāraṇam । jñānān na cīyate karma karmābhāvān na jāyate॥
7x

Dependent origination can be contrasted with the classic Western concept of causation in which an action by one thing is said to cause a change in another thing. Dependent origination instead views the change as being caused by many factors, not just one or even a few. It is regarded throughout the Buddhist tradition as the Buddha's most essential and foundational teaching.

"yo paṭiccasamuppādaṁ passati so dhammaṁ passati; yo dhammaṁ passati so paṭiccasamuppādaṁ passatī"ti.

"One who sees dependent origination sees the teaching. One who sees the teaching sees dependent origination."

-- Mahāhatthipadopamasutta (MN 28), Majjhima Nikāya

Those dharmas which arise from a cause, the Tathāgata has declared their cause.
And that which is the cessation of them, thus the great renunciant (sramana) has taught.
Through ignorance, karma is accumulated, karma is the cause of (re)birth.
Through knowledge, karma is not accumulated, through absence of karma, one is not (re)born.

The additional verse is Southeast Asia specific (fifth century date) and does not have an equivalent in any Buddhist text, whether in the original Indic language or Tibetan or Chinese translation.

प्रतीत्यसमुत्पाद गाथा
ये धर्मा हेतुप्रभवा हेतुं तेषां तथागत उवाच । तेषांच यो निरोध एवंवादी महाश्रमणः । अज्ञानाच्चीयते कर्म जन्मनः कर्म कारणम् । ज्ञानान्नचीयते कर्म कर्माभावान्न जायते॥

Vairocana Sarvakatāḍanavidhiḥ​

oṃ sūkṣme sūkṣme same samaye śānte dānte samārope anālambe tarambe yaśovati mahāteje nirākulanirvāṇe sarvabuddhādhiṣṭhānādhiṣṭhite svāhā॥
3x

The central purpose of this ordinance is the invocation of Sarvavid Vairocana - the "All-Knowing" form of the Buddha Vairocana - who embodies the omniscient, purifying wisdom of the Dharmakāya. In Vajrayāna Buddhism, Sarvavid Vairocana is revered as the cosmic Buddha whose practice purifies negative karma, averts lower rebirths, and restores clarity to beings obscured by afflictions. Originating from the Sarvadurgati Pariśodhana Tantra, this ritual cycle centers on the 37-deity mandala of Vairocana and is traditionally performed for purification, healing, and guiding the deceased. As the personification of complete enlightenment, Sarvavid Vairocana represents the ultimate reason and foundation for the entire rite.

वैरोचन सर्वकताडनविधिः
ॐ सूक्ष्मे सूक्ष्मे समे समये शान्ते दान्ते समारोपे अनालम्बे तरम्बे यशोवति महातेजे निराकुलनिर्व्वाणे सर्व्वबुद्धाधिष्ठानाधिष्ठिते स्वाहा॥

Ratnadhvaja Parikrama Dhāraṇī​

oṃ ratne ratne mahāratne ratnavijaye svāhā॥
3x

The circumambulation dhāraṇī.

रत्नध्वज परिक्रम धारणी
ॐ रत्ने रत्ने महारत्ने रत्नविजये स्वाहा॥

Vimala Uṣṇīṣa​

oṃ namastryadhvikānāṃ । sarva tathāgata hṛdaya garbhe । jvāla jvāla । dharmadhātu garbhe । saṁbhara mama āyuḥ saṃśodhaya mama sarva pāpaṁ । sarva tathāgata samanta uṣṇīṣa vimale viśuddhe । hūṁ hūṁ hūṁ hūṁ । aṁ vaṁ saṁ jaḥ svāhā॥
21x

This mantra is recited for deep purification and the removal of heavy negative karma, and is widely regarded in Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna traditions as one of the most powerful dhāraṇīs for consecration. Known as the Great Wisdom Vimaloṣṇīṣa Dhāraṇī, it is praised for its ability to purify even the five extremely negative karmas upon hearing, and is traditionally used to bless and consecrate sacred images, environments, and stūpas. Historical evidence from sites such as Ratnagiri shows that copies of this dhāraṇī were placed inside stūpas for centuries, reflecting its long-standing role in Buddhist consecration practice. The Vimaloṣṇīṣa text itself states that inserting this dhāraṇī into a stūpa generates merit equivalent to filling it with the relics of countless Buddhas, making it one of the most revered dhāraṇīs for empowering and sanctifying holy objects.

विमल उष्णीष
ॐ नमस्त्र्यध्विकानां । सर्वतथागता हृदय गर्भे । ज्वल ज्वल । धर्मधातु गर्भे । सांभारा मम आयु संशोधय मम सर्व पापं । सर्व तथागत समन्त उष्णीष विमले विशुद्धे । हूँ हूँ हूँ हूँ । अं वं सं जः स्वाहा॥

Cakṣu Unmīlana​

oṃ jñāna cakṣu praveśāya phaṭ॥
3x

Opening of eyes.

चक्षु उन्मीलन
ॐ ज्ञान चक्षु प्रवेशय फट्॥

Pañcajñāna​

oṃ āḥ hūṃ svāhā॥
3x

The five wisdoms.

पञ्चज्ञान
ॐ आः हूँ स्वाहा॥

Abhiṣekapūjā​

oṃ sarva tathāgata mahāpūja pratīccha hoḥ । oṃ puruṣāya hoḥ॥
3x

The empowerment offering prayer.

अभिषेकपूजा
ॐ भगवं सर्वतथागत परमपूजा प्रतीच्छ होः । ॐ पुरुषाय होः॥

Supratiṣṭha​

Perfect consecration mudrā:
  • The left hand is held above the items being blessed, palm facing downward, with the thumb pressing the little finger.
  • The right hand is held below the items being blessed, palm facing upward, with the thumb pressing the little finger.
oṃ guru buddha bodhisattva dharmapāla saparivāra ejati jaḥ hūṃ baṃ hoḥ । oṃ supratiṣṭha vajraye svāhā॥
3x

A request for the deities and their retinues to remain present. In Vajrayāna consecration rituals, this mantra is recited to invite the wisdom beings to approach a sacred object -such as a statue, stūpa, or painting- and to maintain a supportive presence. It creates a connection with their awakened qualities so the object can serve as a source of inspiration, protection, and practice.

सुप्रतिष्ठ
ॐ गुरु बुद्ध बोधिसत्त्व धर्मपाल सपरिवार एजति जः हूं बं होः । ॐ सुप्रतिष्ठ वज्रये स्वाहा॥

Puṇya Pariṇāmanā​

Merit dedication (in our own words).

Svastigāthā​

rab dze ser zhun tzeg pä'i lhun po la।
nam mang rin ch'en tsog kyi tr'a kö tar।
ta wä mi ngom ku zug ch'og di d'ag।
si thäi bar du tän par zhug su söl।

mi gyur lhun po ku yi tra shi shog।
yan lag dr'ug chu sung gi tra shi shog।
tha' dr'äl d'on d'am thug kyi tra shi shog।
gyäl wa'i ku sung thug kyi tra shi shog॥
Verses of Auspiciousness.

Like an assortment of many types of jewels,
Set in the Meru of layers of exquisite refined gold,
May these supreme holy bodily forms, that we can view insatiably,
Remain firmly until the end of existence.

May there be the auspiciousness of the immutable-Meru holy body.
May there be the auspiciousness of the sixty branches of holy speech.
May there be the auspiciousness of the limitless ultimate holy mind.
May there be the auspiciousness of the Conqueror's holy body, speech and mind.

བདེ་ལེགས་བཅད་པ
རབ་མཛེས་གསེར་ཞུན་བརྩེགས་པའི་ལྷུན་པོ་ལ།
རྣམ་མང་རིན་ཆེན་ཚོགས་ཀྱི་ཕྲ་བཀོད་ལྟར།
ལྟ་བས་མི་ངོམས་སྐུ་གཟུགས་མཆོག་འདི་ལ།
སྲིད་མཐའི་བར་དུ་བརྟན་པར་བཞུགས་སུ་གསོལ།

མི་འགྱུར་ལྷུན་པོ་སྐུ་ཡི་བཀྲ་ཤིས་ཤོག།
ཡན་ལག་དྲུག་ཅུ་གསུང་གི་བཀྲ་ཤིས་ཤོག།
མཐའ་བྲལ་དོན་དམ་གས་ཀི་བཀྲ་ཤིས་ཤོག།
རྒྱལ་བའི་སྐུ་གསུང་ཐུགས་ཀི་བཀྲ་ཤིས་ཤོག༎

Prārthanāsiddhiḥ​

pañcendriyāvabodhanīye svāhā । jaya jaya sujaya॥

A mantra for awakening the faculties and accomplishing one's aspirations.

प्रार्थनासिद्धिः
पञ्चेन्द्रियावबोधनीये स्वहा । जय जय सुजय॥

Footnotes​

  1. Sculptural Votive Offering (Sanskrit: सच्छाय, Romanized: Sacchāya, Tibetan: ཚ་ཚ, Wylie: tsha tsha, THL: tsa tsa) ↩

  2. Prayer Book (Sanskrit: पुस्त, Romanized: Pusta, Tibetan: དཔེ་ཆ, Wylie: dpe cha, THL: pecha) ↩