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Five thousand years of an auspicious mark, from Indus Valley seals to the temple walls of Nara.

The word The four gatis The seal Mohenjo-daro The meander 1940 Everything, in one list

Section 3 of 6

The seal

On the footprints, on the chest, on the map.

Carved stone panels with circular rosette and swastika motifs displayed in a museum — On the soles of carved footprints, on the chest of a figure, on a printed map, and turned the other way in Tibet. Four pages on the mark inside Buddhist and Bon practice.Photo: Stonework from the stupa of Amaravati, British Museum 07 · Wikimedia Commons

Buddhapada at AmaravatiThe Buddha's footprints are carved with marks on the soles, and the excavated slabs at Amaravati are where that convention is clearest.
The mark on the chestIn East Asian iconography it sits on the chest of the figure, understood as a seal of the heart-mind.
卍 on a Japanese mapIt remains the standard cartographic symbol for a temple, printed on ordinary survey maps.
Yungdrung, TibetThe Bon tradition uses the same shape turned the other way, with its own name and its own sense of permanence.

Five thousand years of an auspicious mark, from Indus Valley seals to the temple walls of Nara.

The word The four gatis The seal Mohenjo-daro The meander 1940 Everything, in one list About Contact

Su, asti, ka — conducive to wellbeing.