For more than two thousand years, the veneration of sacred fossil ammonites, called Shaligrams, has been an integral part of ritual practice throughout South Asia. Originating from a single remote region of Himalayan Nepal, in the Kali Gandaki River Valley of Mustang, ritual use of these stones today has become a significant aspect of pilgrimage and worship in both India and Nepal, and among the global Hindu and Buddhist Diasporas. Considered inherently sacred not only because they are not man-made but because the workings of the landscape have imbued them with a living essence and agency of their own, Shaligrams require no rites of invocation when brought into homes or temples as presiding deities.
Outward Spirals