Talismanic (Yantra) Hankerchief

Yantra took a variety of different forms, but a common one in Burma and Thailand were talismanic drawings on fabric. Yantra could only be drawn by a Yantra master or a Buddhist monk, and they had to be in the purest of mindsets. They would often draw after meditating, and the drawing related to what the recipient of the cloth needed. These talismanic textiles were power objects believed to help ward off illness, prevent nightmares, and provide protective forces.

Yantra could take the form of a small piece of fabric to be folded and carried in a pocket, or an undershirt. They consisted of stylized calligraphic texts, magical squares, numerical calculations, animals, the human figure, and geometric shapes.