With a look of yearning, Red Sleeves looked at the stone tablet engraved with Chinese and Sanskrit characters in front of him, and sighed: "In this uninhabited and isolated place, what kind of person can carve this stone tablet here?" ”

I told Red Sleeves that this was not a stone stele, but the most common Mani stone in Tibet. The Tibetan ancestors relied on the mountains to eat the mountains, sharpened stone axes for hunting, chiseled stone pots for cooking, built stone houses to avoid the cold, and wore stone pendants to drive away evil spirits, so that Tibet has maintained a long-lasting boulder worship and spiritual stone worship.

Tibetans describe a firm and unchanging heart as 'like a pattern carved in a stone'. Tibetans believe that the traces left on the stone are preserved for a long time, such as Gesar's footprints, horse stone seals, horseshoe prints, and the footprints of a historical celebrity.

The people of Tibet worked hard and with their pen and knife to carve scriptures and various Buddha statues and auspicious patterns on ordinary stones, and decorated them with colors, so that ordinary stones became Mani stones. Devout Tibetan believers believe that if the six-character mantra is consistently engraved on the stones, which are silently recited day and night, these stones will have a supernatural spirituality that will bring them good luck.

The word 'Mani' comes from the abbreviation of the Sanskrit Buddhist scripture "Six-Character Mantra Sutra" 'Om Mani Horn Mi Moo', which is called 'Mani Stone' because of the 'Mani' engraved on the stone.

In the eyes of devout believers, stone carvers become religious artists who bring good fortune to others. He also believes that as long as the six-character mantra that is silently recited day and night is engraved on the stones, these stones will have a supernatural spirituality that will remove the sins of a lifetime and bring them good luck. Therefore, the believer not only recites it orally, but also carves it on the stone with a knife and sends it to the mani pile, which is considered to have completed a merit.

Tibetans generally need to go to the temple to find a lama for divination because of the unsmooth family affairs every year, someone in the family is sick, dies, or everything is unlucky, and will select the type of mantra, scripture or Buddha statue to be engraved, prepare the stone, and then ask the stone carver to process. There are many kinds of craftsmen engaged in stone carving, some of whom have been working for generations, and some who have been working for a temporary basis. In addition to planting crops, some of them devote all their energy to carving stone scriptures. It is said that some of them carve as few as five or six scriptures a year, and as many as a dozen or so, and each scripture takes about 30 days to engrave, using up a tractor's full of stones. Choose the one that is soft on the cliff and not easy to break, because the hard stone is not easy to engrave the six-character mantra.

The Tibetans thrive on the snowy plateau with undulating mountains and peaks, and believe that every mountain peak has a god. Therefore, the Tibetan people who live on or under this mountain naturally worship this mountain god as the protector of the tribe, and some even worship it as the ancestral god of their own tribe.

'Mani Dui' is a place of worship for the devotees to the primordial gods, mainly the mountain gods and the gods of war, and it is a place where people and gods have a dialogue. Nowadays, Tibetans usually add a small stone or a stone to the pile of stones every time they pass by a 'mani pile' as a prayer. Throwing a pebble or adding a small stone is the same as reciting the scriptures.

The 'Mani pile' is constantly increasing, some forming small hills, less than one, more than several, and in some places there is often the saying of 'Duo Bang Jiu Song' (that is, 13 Mani stone piles). Some of the pedestals are connected to form a sacred wall. The wall is considered to be the boundary between the human world and the gods of heaven and earth, and it is also the meeting point and connection point between the world and the heavens, the earth, and the gods.

In addition to the 'six-character mantra', Tibetan scriptures and the 'swastika' symbol, the Mani stone carvings are also carved with various Buddha statues (such as Dharma Protector, Vajra, etc.), as well as dragons, frogs, fish, birds, lions, elephants, pagodas, flowers and plants. At the same time, more attention was paid to decoration and the richness of secular life was integrated into the carving. Mani stone can be composed of Mani pile or Mani wall, which can be seen almost everywhere in the mountains, intersections, lakes and rivers.

Whether it is a Mani pile composed of Mani stones, a stone prayer wall or a cliff statue, it can exist as a kind of 'road sign' or 'landmark', and is set up at mountain passes, junctions and bends for travel and turning.

In a practical sense, they can show pedestrians the direction they are heading and indicate the route they are taking. This is especially important in the sparsely populated and vast plateau. With the exception of a few major transportation arteries, vast Tibetan areas lack real roads. Since ancient times, Tibetans did not use ox carts or horse-drawn carts, and rarely built roads, relying on two legs or riding horses for long journeys. Therefore, whenever you go to an area where you can't see the road, you will see clusters of stone piles, one after the other, stretching out to the top of the mountain, stretching out to the sky. Those piles of stones were piled up by the travelers over the years.

Red Sleeves sighed: "Hey, how devout people who believe in Tibetan Esoteric Buddhism should be, I really can't imagine what kind of life it would be for a believer to dedicate his life to engraved Mani stones." ”

I smiled and said, "The power of faith is super powerful, and when they do this, they will feel that they have dedicated their whole life to the gods and Buddhas, and this is their greatest happiness." ”

The Celestial Fairy interjected on the side: "We don't see this kind of almost crazy belief pattern in Middle-earth Buddhism, no wonder Tibet is often full of reverence and yearning, which is also one of the factors. ”

I nodded and said, "Yes, the combination of cultural landscape and natural landscape is super attractive." It is said that when Tibetan Buddhism was introduced to Tibet, Tibet believed in a more mysterious religion, which seems to be called Bon. This Mani stone is a manifestation of the Bon faith. Later, Tibetan Buddhism flourished, inheriting and carrying forward some of the gods and Buddhas and religious rituals in the primitive Bon, and this Mani stone was also passed down. ”

Red Sleeves looked at the quiet small lake surrounded by mountains, and said with fascination: "Since the Mani Stone can represent communication between people and the gods, and can be used as a signpost, then what does such a mysterious Mani Stone represent when it appears here?" ”

Red Sleeves' words shook my heart, yes, Tibet is already deserted, and it is even more isolated from the world, why is there such a Mani stone? What would it mean if it served as a symbol of man's communication with God? Is it a hint to my visit to Tibet?

The words of Guru Bama that I want to go to the holy lake and feel the power of the gods came to my mind at this moment, and although I thought that Guru Bama was just a liar, I also thought that what he said, although nonsense, was inadvertently in line with Providence.

Could the holy lake that Guru Bama is talking about be the small lake in front of you? The more I thought about it, the more I thought it was possible, according to Tibetans, every mountain and lake in Tibet has a god, and this unknown small lake is no exception.

The sacred lake of Namtso, which I began to seek, is certainly famous, but because of the large number of tourists, I am afraid that it will not be a place where the gods can easily manifest their spirits, and this mysterious small lake, if there are gods, is really an excellent place to communicate with me, a person who has a mission to enter Tibet.

I said happily: "Fairy and Red Sleeves, let's be careful by this lake, I'm afraid there are gods in this lake, and we must not raise our voices and anger the gods." ”

Although the Heavenly Fairy and Red Sleeves didn't believe in any gods, they nodded lightly in fear on the edge of this terrifyingly quiet small lake.

The Heavenly Fairy whispered: "Brother Xiaomo, if there is really a god here, then this Mani stone will not be a signpost to guide us to worship the gods, right?" ”

I was greatly surprised in my heart, the words of the fairy said the conjecture and confusion in my heart, could it be that the heavens hinted to me again through her mouth?

I held the Mani stone and said thoughtfully: "Just now Red Sleeve asked me how I can match the six-character mantra in Sanskrit with the number in Chinese, and I have already told you that you can distinguish it by color." Do you two think it's weird? On the same stone, the six-character mantra engraved in two fonts in China and Sanskrit is in different positions, will there be another mystery in this? ”

Red Sleeves and the Heavenly Fairy were also very surprised, and Red Sleeves looked at it for a while and said, "Yes, to give you a reminder, I also find it strange." Whether in Chinese or Sanskrit, these six-character mantras are six characters enclosing a circle. It is strange that the opening position of the six-character Daming mantra in Chinese and Sanskrit is 180 degrees different, which is exactly reversed. ”

The three of us were looking at the mysterious Mani stone in front of us in amazement, when we suddenly felt something strange around us, and the originally bright sky turned gray at this time.

I looked up at the sky and exclaimed, "Oh no, look, there's a big dark cloud rolling in." The climate in this Tibetan region is really unpredictable, and it seems that it will rain heavily in a while, so let's find a place to hide! ”

On the first day of our arrival at Namtso Lake, the three of us experienced the strange weather when the clear sky suddenly turned into dark clouds, storms and rains mixed with hail.

I looked around, except for the dense primeval forest, all around were white snow-capped mountains, and what was even more terrifying was that the half-moon-shaped mysterious small lake under our feet was no longer clear at the moment, and the water color was a palpitating inky black.

It seems that he will not be able to escape from this terrible and strange environment for a while. I emboldened myself and decided to pitch a tent by this mysterious little lake to escape this terrible storm, and at the same time, to see if there would be a miracle in this mysterious little lake.

Just as I had just put down my backpack and was about to beckon them to help me set up the tent, I suddenly heard Red Sleeves exclaiming, "Brother Xiaomo, come and see, there is a cave here!" ”