One hundred eight second chances, restrung.
One hundred eight beads, gathered one at a time from broken Tibetan malas: dzi-style etched rounds, cold iron, and yak bone, each bead an orphan that did its first mala's full term. A yak-bone (牦牛骨, mao niu gu) Guru bead anchors the strand. Below it hangs a disc cut from banded agate, one great eye looking back at you. Two counters end in repoussé drops. One pearl carries a hand-set inlay. Restrung by hand in our workshop. The beads are old. The mala is new. See Dzi Beads for the etched rounds, Tibetan Iron Beads for the iron, Yak Bone & Horn for the bone, and Malas 101 for the count.
Meaning: Sönam (བསོད་ནམས་, bsod nams) is merit: what accumulates when practice outlasts the practitioner. Tradition holds a mala remembers its count, and these beads have been counted over before. Whatever their first owners prayed for, the beads kept the habit. Now they count for you.
Scent: Dry and soft. Old bone, handled iron, a trace of oil from hands long gone. Faint, and honest about it.
Feel: The strand moves like a river at different temperatures: iron runs cold, bone runs warm, the etched rounds sit somewhere in between. The beads are small, so the mala drapes rather than hangs. The eye disc rests at the sternum like a full stop, and the repoussé drops swing light against the wrist when the strand is doubled.
Specifications:
Pieces: 108 beads (dzi-style etched, iron, yak bone), yak-bone Guru bead, banded-agate eye disc, 2 counters ending in repoussé drops, 1 inlaid pearl
Care: Mixed materials, one rule: keep it dry. No soaking. Wipe with a dry cloth. A light coat of mineral oil on the iron beads now and then, cast-iron-pan logic. The bone wants your hand oils and nothing bottled. Store in a pouch apart from harder stones.
On sourcing: Made in our workshop from authentic orphan beads of broken Tibetan malas. We make no age claim for the strand as a whole; each bead carries its own history, and we think that is better.
