Dorje
The dorje is the ritual thunderbolt of Bhutanese and Tibetan Buddhism, a bronze or gilt sceptre with a central grip and prongs that curve inward at each end, held in monastic hand rituals and placed on altars. The word is the Tibetan translation of the Sanskrit vajra, and it means lord of stones, hard as diamond and indestructible as the thunderbolt; the five prongs of the common form stand for the five Dhyani Buddhas and their wisdoms. In the older Hindu and Buddhist myth the vajra was the thunder-weapon of the god Indra, and in Himalayan ritual the dorje is paired with the hand bell, held in