All spirituality dwells within us and that which we carry with us, close to our hearts. The beautiful Tibetan prayer boxes, known as gau, exemplify this. A Tibetan gau isused to carry magic charms and medicinal herbs, also used as a portable shrine. For protection when traveling, Tibetan Buddhists often wear a gau a small prayer box with sacred verses stored inside. As a small container used to hold and carry powerful amuletic objects, the Gau is culturally equivalent to Latin American package amulets, African-American conjure bags or mojo hands, South American charm vials, and American wish boxes.

Hundreds of years ago in the Buddhism of Tibet, tradition stated that writing a prayer and placing it in a small container worn around the neck would ensure that the prayer would be answered. Gradually, these gau became miniature shrines, holding blessed and sacred yantra diagrams, pieces of prayer scarves, precious charms or images of one's personal deity wrapped in a bit of silk. Gaus are likewise worn round the neck; and it is not infrequent to see several fastened to the same string. Most of the boxes are pointed, imitating the form of a fig-leaf; but they are also square or circular. The outside is either embossed or painted. They are used to hold and carry powerful objects, images and clay votives. Made of silver with beautiful repousse work.

The prayer box itself is simple: a joining of two metal parts that fit together, one of which may have a small opening. The back remains unadorned, while the front is decorated richly with intricate ornamentation and semi-precious stones such as turquoise and lapis. Inside, however, is where the prayers and loves of the gau holder are placed. Most Tibetans use the boxes in the home, when traveling and during those times when daily ceremonies are not restricted to a temple. In the home, the gau remains on the alter but when traveling it is kept fastened securely on the body. Through blessings, the gau become hand-held amulets of that which is sacred in Buddhism

Though each individual gau varies in design according to the artist who crafted it, the boxes often will have four sides, representing the four karmas of enriching, destroying, pacifying and magnetizing symbolizing the activities of Buddha in the four directions. As you move in different directions through life, keeping the gau close to your heart serves as both a reminder of who you are in a spiritual sense as well as what it is you are striving for.