Glossary

Beads & Strands

  • Mala: a strand of counting beads for mantra practice. The full form is 108 counting beads plus a guru bead (see Malas 101). Essentially, a rosary.
  • Guru bead: the anchor bead of a mala. You don't cross it while counting, you turn the strand around.
  • Wrist mala: bracelet-length mala form: 18, 21, 27, or 54 counting beads.
  • Dzi (天珠, tian zhu; Tibetan གཟི་, gzhi): "heaven bead / sky bead": etched agate patterned with eyes and motifs. See Dzi Bead General and Tibetan vs. Modern.
  • Zhichun (至纯, zhi chun) and cuosi (措思, cuo si): the traditional names for the genuine-process Dzi family and its more transparent cousin (Tibetan གཟི་, gzhi, and མཚོ་གཟི་, mtsho gzi). See Tibetan vs. Modern.
  • Thogchag (托甲, tuo jia; Tibetan ཐོག་ལྕགས་, thog lcags): "sky-iron": iron amulets tradition holds fell with the thunderbolt. See Tibetan Iron Beads.
  • Tsa-tsa: small molded clay votives from Tibet and Nepal. See Porcelain & Clay.
  • Puti (菩提子, pu ti zi): umbrella name for the seed-family prayer beads. See Seed & Nut Beads.

Materials & Craft

  • Patina: the surface change (color, luster, texture) that years of handling bring. In this catalog, usually a feature, not a flaw.
  • Matrix: the host-rock veining in turquoise. "Spiderweb" is the prized webbed form (see Turquoise).
  • Stabilized: turquoise (or other soft stone) resin-infused to harden it. Standard practice, must be disclosed (see Turquoise).
  • Composite: powder-and-binder manufactured material (block turquoise, resin "cinnabar"). Honest goods only when labeled (see Turquoise, Cinnabar).
  • Chatoyancy: the moving "cat's eye" light band across a stone or glass bead (see Other Precious & Semi-Precious Stones).
  • Mukhi: the counted "faces" or grooves of a vajra/rudraksha seed (see Seed & Nut Beads).
  • 开片 (kai pian): the fine crackle patina that decades of wear bring to star & moon bodhi. Read as the signature of sincere use (see Seed & Nut Beads).
  • 瘤花 (liu hua): "tumor grain": tight burl figuring prized in cliff cypress (see Other Woods).
  • Vermilion: the red pigment made from cinnabar. Also the color's name (see Cinnabar).
  • Yao bian (窑变, yao bian): "kiln transformation": the unrepeatable blue-purple glaze bursts of Jun kiln ware (see Porcelain & Clay).
  • Bai hua (白化, bai hua): "whitening": the whole-bead bleaching step in genuine-process dzi making, and the reason for the milky-hole tell (see How Dzi Are Made (Today)).
  • Qinan (奇楠, qi nan): the soft, sticky, supremely fragrant top grade of agar wood (see Agar Wood).
  • Urushiol: the skin-irritating compound in raw lacquer sap. Cured lacquer is inert (see Daqi).
  • Nacre (珍珠质, zhen zhu zhi): the lustrous layer a mollusk lays down around an implant - pearl's substance (see How Pearls Are Farmed).
  • Copal: young, half-fossilized resin: amber's impatient cousin. The most common "old-looking" amber stand-in (see How Amber Forms).

Jade & Stone Terms

  • Nephrite (软玉, ruan yu) and jadeite (硬玉, ying yu): the two true jades. See Jade.
  • Hetian (和田玉, he tian yu): the historic gold-standard source of Chinese nephrite. See Jade.
  • Mutton-fat (羊脂白玉, yang zhi bai yu): the finest white Hetian jade: warm, oily, translucent.
  • 种 (zhong): the jadeite texture grade, from coarse "bean" to legendary glass-type (see Jade).

Trade & Quality

  • Old vs. ancient: in this catalog's usage, "old" means decades to a century-plus with visible age. "Ancient" means dynasties, and is a claim we almost never make (see Tibetan vs. Modern, Glass Beads).
  • Provenance: the documented chain of where a piece came from. The thing that separates "said" from "shown" (see Our Materials Sourcing).

Pendant & Symbol Terms

  • Vishvavajra (十字金刚杵, shi zi jin gang chu; Tibetan རྡོ་རྗེ་རྒྱ་གྲམ་, rdo rje rgya gram): the crossed vajra, two vajras locked at right angles. Absolute stability, protection from all four directions (see Pendant Imagery).
  • Kartika (金刚钺刀, jin gang yue dao; Tibetan གྲི་གུག་, gri gug): the ritual curved knife of wrathful deities, its blade cutting through ignorance and ego's grip (see Pendant Imagery).
  • Melong (མེ་ལོང་, me long): the Tibetan ritual mirror, a symbol of the mind's own clarity. The nine-palace bagua mirror (九宫八卦镜, jiu gong ba gua jing) pairs it with the Chinese cosmological compass as a protective pendant (see Pendant Imagery).
  • Khyung (ཁྱུང་): the Tibetan garuda: the golden-winged king of birds, sworn enemy of the nagas (see Pendant Imagery).
  • Cintamani (摩尼宝珠, mo ni bao zhu; Tibetan ནོར་བུ་, nor bu): the wish-granting jewel, almost always shown wrapped in flame (see Pendant Imagery).
  • Dharmapala (护法, hu fa; Tibetan ཆོས་སྐྱོང་, chos skyong): "dharma protector": the wrathful guardian deities, fierce by function rather than nature (see Pendant Imagery).
  • Bumpa (བུམ་པ་): the treasure vase of the Eight Auspicious Symbols: the vase that never empties (see Pendant Imagery).
  • Arhat (罗汉, luo han; Tibetan དགྲ་བཅོམ་པ་, dgra bcom pa): "worthy one": a monk who completed the path and remains as exemplar (see Pendant Imagery).
  • Abhaya mudra (佛手, fo shou): "gesture of fearlessness": the open raised palm, the Buddha's reassurance (see Pendant Imagery).

Related: FAQ · Claims We Don't Make

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