Terma Punctuation

The image of two circles and a crescent moon shape ༔ is known in Tibetan as a ter-tseg གཏེར་ཚེག་. Used as a punctuation mark at the end of a line of text or mantra, it denotes the origin of a mantra or manuscript originated as a spiritual treasure called a Terma གཏེར་མ.

Such treasures were hidden by Guru Rinpoche or Yeshe Tsogyal for the benefit of future generations.

According to the vision of Terton Taksham Nuden Dorje, the two circles of the Terma motif symbolise ‘means’ ཐབས་ and ‘wisdom’ or ‘knowledge’ ཤེས་རབ་. The crescent moon between them represents their indivisible unity ཟུང་དུ་འཇུག་པ།

The ter-tseg used as a punctuation mark can also be written as just two ཿ circles without the crescent moon, such as in Terma manuscripts from Mindrol Ling. However not to be confused with the function of a visarga punctuation of just two circles ཿ which influences a softer sound of a syllable, such as dhīḥ and hrīḥ

This particular art-piece was created for a solo exhibition with Amankora, Bhutan.