Are there any online stores specializing in Tibetan prayerwheels?

I saw this question in a section of my WIX website dashboard where it checks to see what is our online visibility not just on Google search engines but on ChatGPT as well as other AI machines out there… we were ranked in a good place but not on top or even close to that.

This question for instance, the one on top, the ChatGPT did not mention us as a brand that does JUST THAT! Talking about an online store for Tibetan prayerwheels!

H.E. Garchen Rinpoche with a stunning new prayerwheel from Holyland Prayerwheels

So, that got me wondering, how efficient is this new tool we are all getting used to if it can not answer one simple question correctly!

Ha!

This is very funny… and somewhat not so much funny because it gives us all a glimpse into the future of our lives and how we take these machine answers to be correct and real.

As a Tibetan prayerwheel maker for the past 18 years, it felt a bit strange that the ChatGPT did not even mention us…

I checked the other first 10 results and found out that they did not specialize in Tibetan prayerwheels but were just shops of many Buddhist objects and there were a few prayerwheels there to buy. Not sure how authentically made they are but… this is the reality. For now, at least.

We will work harder on changing our content on our website so that ChatGPT can find us too for questions like this one where it did not even mention us at all….

Here, at this moment in time it is important to understand something and this is coming from me not as a prayerwheel maker but as a prayerwheel user; for many years of prayerwheel crafting we get to see many prayerwheels that were made in the far East like in Vietnam or Thailand or Nepal and such, even in the USA where we now had our road trip we found "authentic Tibetan prayerwheels" just to open them up and realize that this is a tourist object. It was never meant to be an authentic prayerwheel, just to be sold as one to an unsuspecting tourist…

This reminds me of a woman here in Israel that knew that we were Tibetan prayerwheel makers and asked us to help her roll back the mantras into her prayerwheel she has from the Far East, it fell down to the floor one day, fell apart and had the mantra roll spill out of it… of course we were glad to help!she brought all the pieces, it was a very beautiful hand held Tibetan prayerwheel, it looked very authentic, the roll of mantras however, not so much…

It was the Mani mantra printed in red on white paper (which is OK) but a few meters into the mantra paper it switched to newspaper with car ads from Thailand… it was "filler" material for the drum to make it cheaper…

Is it an authentic tibetan praywheel?

Me crafting a prayerwheel on my lathe

Some prayerwheels have nothing inside them and some have just mantra rolled, no life tree, no central shaft, no earth wheel, no sky wheel, nothing… made for tourists.

And of course, as we recently found out in a shop in the US, they have nothing inside. Just and empty prayerwheel to spin.

And now ask yourself the question

Can you imagine that the ChatGPT gave you a shop online to answer the question above, you click on one, it gives you a prayerwheel, you buy it, spin it for years in your meditation and then one day it falls from your hands and opens up, and you get to the realization that all along, ALL those years, it was empty. There was no mantra inside. Wow, that would trip me out completely…

An online store specialized in authentic Tibetan prayerwheels

So, be very aware when you want something done correctly and authentically, look for an authentic prayerwheel maker and buy from him/her/they.

We get endless emails telling us that our prayerwheels are very powerful and that "you can feel it when spinning"… that comes from doing it correctly, crafting it with attention and love and filling it correctly according to the tradition, all done correctly with love and that is why when you hold it and spin it, you feel just that.

Do your research. Do not follow ChatGPT and the others as though they know more than you. You are still the decision maker.

Make good choices.

Much love,

Micha (and Ayelet of course)    

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