Om Mani Padme Hum: Meaning, Syllables and Origin

By the Awaken Library Editorial TeamEditorial Team · Updated October 23, 2026Oct 23, 2026 · How we write

Om Mani Padme Hum is the six-syllable mantra of Avalokiteśvara, the bodhisattva of compassion, and the most widespread mantra in Tibetan Buddhism. Word for word it is “Om, jewel, lotus, Hum”; “the jewel in the lotus” is one disputed reading.The Dalai Lama explains the syllables as a path joining method and wisdom; Tibetan teachers encourage anyone to recite it.

What does Om Mani Padme Hum mean?

Only two of its words have an ordinary meaning. Maṇi is “jewel” and padme is a form of padma, “lotus”. Om is the sacred syllable that opens many mantras (see Om), and hūṃ is a syllable with no dictionary meaning, used in incantations.

Tibetan teachers rarely stop at the words. The best-known explanation is the Dalai Lama’s, in Kindness, Clarity, and Insight:

• Om, made of three letters, A, U and M, stands for body, speech and mind: our ordinary, impure ones and the pure ones of a Buddha.
• Mani, the jewel, stands for method: “the altruistic intention to become enlightened, compassion, and love”.
• Padme, the lotus, stands for wisdom, because a lotus “grows forth from mud but is not sullied by the faults of mud”.
• Hum stands for the indivisibility of method and wisdom.

Together, he says, the six syllables mean that by a path joining method and wisdom “you can transform your impure body, speech, and mind into the pure exalted body, speech, and mind of a Buddha”. He also says to recite it “thinking on its meaning”. This is a Buddhist teaching about the path, not a translation of the grammar.

Translation: why scholars disagree

“The jewel in the lotus” is the version most people know, but the grammar of maṇipadme is unclear, and the sūtra where the mantra first appears does not explain it. The 84000 translation team notes that the sūtra “gives no explanation of the meaning of the mantra as a whole, a meaning that has been understood in various ways”. Wikipedia summarizes four readings:

Lopez also notes that most Tibetan texts treat the translation as secondary. What they explain is how the six syllables match other sets of six. We did not open Lopez’s book itself; his reading here is as Wikipedia reports it.

Is Om Mani Padme Hum Sanskrit or Tibetan?

The words are Sanskrit. The mantra first appears in an Indian sūtra, the Kāraṇḍavyūha, whose oldest fragments are in Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, a mix of Sanskrit and Middle Indic. Tibet received the sūtra in a 9th-century translation, and the mantra became the heart of Tibetan lay practice. The language is Sanskrit; the script you usually see and the usual pronunciation are Tibetan.

How to pronounce and write it

Wikipedia gives the Sanskrit in phonetic letters as [õː mɐɳɪ pɐdmeː ɦũː]. The Tibetan “peme” and “hung” are not mistakes; they are how the syllables sound in Tibetan. Some practitioners add a seventh syllable, hrīḥ, often said silently; Wikipedia cites Bucknell and Stuart-Fox (1986) for this longer form.

In the tool at the top, tap each syllable to see it in Tibetan script with both readings.

How to chant it, and how it is used: mani stones, prayer wheels, malas

In Tibet the mantra is carved and printed as well as spoken.

• Mani stones. The mantra is carved on stones, often painted in the six colors above, and piled into long walls along paths. Custom is to pass a mani wall on your left, walking clockwise.
• Prayer wheels. Wheels hold rolls of paper printed with the mantra many times over. They are usually turned clockwise, and, as Wikipedia’s article on prayer wheels summarizes the tradition, turning one is held to bring much the same merit as reciting the prayers inside.
• Malas. Recitation is often counted on a string of 108 beads. The counter at the top of this page does the same on screen, in rounds of 27, 54 or 108.

Can you chant it if you are not Buddhist? Tibetan teachers commonly encourage everyone to say it; it is the mantra lay people recite most. To start, say the six syllables evenly, aloud or under your breath, one round at a time. The Dalai Lama’s advice is to think about the meaning while you recite. If you want to go further, the formal practices of Chenrezig are taught by teachers within a lineage.

Where it comes from: the Kāraṇḍavyūha sūtra

The mantra first appears in the Kāraṇḍavyūha, “The Basket’s Display”. The 84000 translators date the sūtra’s appearance in writing to around the 5th century CE; the scholar who published its oldest manuscript fragments, found in a stūpa at Gilgit, suggests the 4th or 5th century. The sūtra calls the mantra the ṣaḍakṣarī mahāvidyā, “six-syllable great spell”, and treats it as the innermost heart of Avalokiteśvara.

The sūtra’s main subject is the mantra and its “inconceivable benefits”, the 84000 introduction says. It does not explain what the words mean or what each syllable is for. Those explanations came later, in Tibet. The 11th-century Maṇi Kabum built on the sūtra and became a foundation of Tibetan Avalokiteśvara practice.

The sūtra reached China late: the first Chinese translation, by Tianxizai, is from 983 CE. Today the mantra is part of one of the Ten Small Mantras recited each morning in many Chinese and Vietnamese temples, Wikipedia notes.

The six syllables, the six perfections and the six realms

Tibetan teachers often explain the mantra by matching its six syllables to other sets of six. Two lists are well known. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche pairs them with the six perfections; Tsangsar Tulku Rinpoche, in a Chenrezig practice text, with the six realms of rebirth that each syllable is said to purify. Mani stones paint each syllable its own color.

Perfections, realms and colors are from Wikipedia’s articles on the mantra and on mani stones; the realm table there is attributed to Tsangsar Tulku’s practice text. Different teachers give different lists, so treat this as two well-known examples.

Benefits of the mantra: what the tradition says

The benefits taught in Tibetan Buddhism are spiritual. The Kāraṇḍavyūha itself describes the mantra’s benefits as “inconceivable”. Lama Zopa Rinpoche, of the FPMT, teaches that reciting it purifies negative karma, that “it is easy to purify negative karma and collect extensive merit”, and that a person who recites it often blesses the beings their body touches. Teachers also speak of developing compassion and of a good rebirth.

These are claims of a religious tradition, made inside its own view of karma and rebirth. We report them as that, and we don’t confirm or dispute them. On October 23, 2026, a PubMed search for the mantra, Avalokiteśvara or “Tibetan mantra” found two records, and neither studied the effect of chanting this mantra.

If you want calm or attention, the page on mantras covers what the studies of repetition found.

What this page does not promise. We don’t claim the mantra heals, protects, brings luck or changes your next life; those are beliefs of a tradition. The tool shows the syllables and counts; it plays no audio. For practice beyond reciting, a teacher of the tradition is the right guide.

Related: what a mantra is · Om · Gayatri mantra · Maha Mrityunjaya mantra · karma · meditation for spiritual awakening · mudras