100,000 candles??

Schrödinger’s Yidam
Posts: 7885
Joined: Wed May 29, 2013 6:13 am

Re: 100,000 candles??

Post by Schrödinger’s Yidam »

We burn 1,000 butter lamps per week. The lamps come from India and are 2" diameter shallow bowls on 2" pedestal with a hole in the bottom to accept a wick. We do the traditional Tibetan fuel, which is ghee. The wicks also come from India. The wicks are like toothpicks wrapped in cotton fiber.

They make a black smoke that turns the walls black. (That's why all those monasteries in Tibet have black walls.) They are greasy nasty things to clean. Boiling the butter down to ghee is a drag. However I think you could probably use salad oil and simplify the process.

BTW, are you a Gelugpa? It's not often you hear about something like this. If you did 100 a day you'd be done in 3 years. After the initial cost of the lamps it would just be salad oil, wicks, and cleaning supplies.

Wiki has some pictures of butter lamps.
1.The problem isn’t ‘ignorance’. The problem is the mind you have right now. (H.H. Karmapa XVII @NYC 2/4/18)
2. I support Mingyur R and HHDL in their positions against lama abuse.
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KonchogUrgyenNyima
Posts: 239
Joined: Thu Jun 20, 2019 1:34 am
Location: PNW

Re: 100,000 candles??

Post by KonchogUrgyenNyima »

Schrödinger’s Yidam wrote: Sat Apr 24, 2021 8:40 pm We burn 1,000 butter lamps per week. The lamps come from India and are 2" diameter shallow bowls on 2" pedestal with a hole in the bottom to accept a wick. We do the traditional Tibetan fuel, which is ghee. The wicks also come from India. The wicks are like toothpicks wrapped in cotton fiber.

They make a black smoke that turns the walls black. (That's why all those monasteries in Tibet have black walls.) They are greasy nasty things to clean. Boiling the butter down to ghee is a drag. However I think you could probably use salad oil and simplify the process.

BTW, are you a Gelugpa? It's not often you hear about something like this. If you did 100 a day you'd be done in 3 years. After the initial cost of the lamps it would just be salad oil, wicks, and cleaning supplies.

Wiki has some pictures of butter lamps.
ello,

Thanks for the suggestion! I’m wondering if you can pm me and give me an idea of what exactly you mean. I think this could possibly be a much cheaper alternative.

Also,
No i’m not a gelugpa. I think my lama is considered Rime. Everything we do is pretty nyingma, but he grew up as a gelugpa until he was recognized as a nyingma tulku.
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