Tibetan Offering Torma

The Tibetan offering torma is one of the most distinctive objects in Tibetan Buddhist practice. Traditionally it is sculpted from roasted barley flour and butter, shaped into a conical form and decorated with coloured medallions, then placed on the altar as an offering to a deity. Each tradition and each deity has its own prescribed shape, and in monasteries the making of tormas is a discipline in itself, taught and inherited like any other craft.

An offering torma is presented most often to the wrathful protectors — Mahakala and Shri Devi, known in Tibetan as Palden Lhamo, above all — but the practice is not confined to them. Tormas are equally offered on the altars of peaceful deities such as Tara and Avalokiteshvara, and they appear constantly in thangka painting, stacked on the altars depicted beneath the central figure.

In certain wrathful rites the offering torma takes on a second role entirely: rather than being presented, it is cast — hurled at the close of the ceremony as a ritual weapon to dispel obstructing forces and avert misfortune. These rites are performed at year’s end in many monasteries, and they are the reason the torma is sometimes described as a weapon as well as an offering. The two functions are not in tension; both rest on the same idea, that what is given up with sincerity has power.

Because a dough torma is perishable and must be remade, permanent metal versions have long been used where a fresh offering is impractical — on a home altar, in a shrine room maintained year-round, or wherever the form matters more than its renewal. Our offering torma collection is hand carved in Patan, Nepal, in sizes from 7 to 9 inches, in white metal alloy and copper alloy with contrasting rings, and one finished in gold plate over oxidized copper. Each is set with semi-precious turquoise and coral and engraved by hand, so no two are identical.

Browse the Tibetan offering torma selection below, or see the rest of our Tibetan ritual items — including the water offering bowls and butter lamps that sit alongside tormas on a fully appointed altar.