Butter Lamp

Butter lamps, also known as butter lights, are found in Tibetan Buddhist temples and monasteries all across the Himalayas. Traditionally, the lamps burned clarified yak butter, but nowadays, vegetable oil or vanaspati ghee are commonly used. The butter lamps enhance meditation by focusing the mind. "If you aspire for sublime realization, offer hundreds of lights," says the Cakrasavara Tantra's Root Tantra.

Pilgrims also provide lamp oil in order to achieve virtue. The real lamps are managed by the monks at the monastery, who take great care to prevent igniting one of the tragic fires that have ravaged numerous monasteries over the years. Butter lamps are occasionally confined to a separate courtyard enclosure with a stone floor for safety reasons.

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The lights seemed to be banishing darkness from the outside. In terms of concept, they change ordinary matter into illumination, a transition analogous to the quest for enlightenment. They esoterically evoke the tummo yoga energy of Naropa's Six Yogas, an essential text for the Kagyu, Gelug, and Sakya schools of tantric Buddhism.

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