Tibetan Mala, Buddhist rosary of prayer and meditation. 108 pearls of buxus sinica carved in the shape of a lotus Cinnabar dragon pendant

Tibetan Mala, Buddhist rosary of prayer and meditation.
108 pearls of buxus sinica carved in the shape of a lotus
Dragon pendant in cinabre

As a gemologist graduated from the National Institute of Gemmology of Paris, all our stones are appraised and certified.

As a Malakara, we make all our malas ourselves while scrupulously respecting tradition.
We assemble our malas on a traditional cord, a braid of 5 threads of the 5 colors of the 5 meditation Buddhas.

Sliding knot in finish like all our malas, object of practice, as shown in this video as an example.
https://www.facebook.com/103104533147394/videos/446304419720374

The mala, trengwa, in Tibetan is the buddhist's rosary, the object from which the monk (or even the lay practitioner) almost never separates, holding it in his hand or wrapped around the wrist.
The mala is first of all a utilitarian onjet: it serves as a tactile support for the recitation of mantras, at the same time as it is used to count them if one has set to repeat a defined number.
The mala is composed of 108 strung pearls, which justifies its name, since it simply means "garland" (of pearls). The different components each contain a symbolic meaning specify: The large pearl (or Buddha's head) that closes the loop repeats the knowledge of emptiness. The small cone that surmounts it is the mark of emptiness itself.

Symbol of absolute purity and Awakening, emblem of spiritual elevation, the lotus has the particularity of taking root in mud or mud, its stem bathing in water while its flower blooms majestically on the water. The lotus represents the elevation of the soul, first purely materialistic through its roots, then tasting the experience of water through its stem, to finally achieve enlightenment and awakening through its flower.

Tibetan Buddhists see through the Lotus the true nature of Beings, the stem being samsara (cycles of life and death), the flower symbolizing peace and serenity.

Dragon pendant in cinabre
Pendant dimension 40mm by 59mm by 9mm
Cinabre (family of sulphides of formula Hgs), from the Greek Kinnaburi, cinabra was already known since the Neolithic for its use as a pigment in wall frescoes and religious ceremonies.

The Greek philosopher Theoprastus (-371/ -288) mentions mines of cinabre in Spain, e, Colchis and a meadow of Ephesus (the book of stones) where the cinabar is extracted from a sandy mineral.

The oldest archeological testimonies are found in Turkey (- 8000), Spain (- 5300), then in China (Yangshao culture - 4000 and early Bronze Age in the Erlitou culture)

Its ancient use has also been attested in China, the Shang dynasty (-1570 / -1045) used it during divination (scapulomancy) to make appear and interpret cracks on turtle shells.
The Chinese used sinnabar 3500 years ago as a pigment for pottery or as ink. They would have been the first to have made vermilion, at the beginning of our era. Used in Chinese medicine either to clarify the heart and calm the mind, or locally to eliminate toxicity.
Chinese Taoists used it as a drug of immortality, hence mercury poisonings. The most famous is that of Emperor Qin Shihuang in - 210.

In the Egypt of the Ptolemies, the practice of cremation appears. On some fragments of burnt bones there is a red color, the dye is intentionally deposited cinnabar.

In the first century, Dioscorides, devotes a notice of his pharmacopoeia "materia medica" to the cinabra coming from Libya.

In antiquity, sinnabar was used as a pigment that was generally reserved for the elite. Rome made it a state monopoly and set the selling price. Pliny mentions it under the name of minium.

Vitruvius in the 1st century BCE describes the use in painting.
In the third century AD, Zosimus of Panapolis, a Greek scholar and alchemist, born in Egypt mentions that the sinnabar is composed of sulfur and mercury.
In 721, the Iranian and alchemist Geber explains that mercury and sulfur can combine with heat, in sinnabar.

In the Middle Ages, in the East, the most important documents were signed with ink based on cinabre (reserved, in Byzantium to the emperor)

Some illuminations are made with ink based on cinabar and sanguine.

In 1527: Paracelsus prescribes mercury as a treatment for syphilis
In 1797: Constantin Kirchnoff discovered a process for the production of cinabar by wet means.

Many counterfeit resins circulate on the market.

The dragon is a creature that is both mythological and folkloric in China. Present in the founding myths of Chinese civilization - Yu the Great would have obtained the help of one of these creatures - Chinese dragons, or Long, are very different from their Western "cousins".

While the latter are evil beings in the legends of the European Middle Ages, the dragons of China, and by extension of Asia, are generally benevolent beings, even if Buddhist thinkers introduced the idea that some dragons could be responsible for destruction as a result of human affronts.

Among some 360 scaled creatures in Chinese mythology, the dragon occupied the top of a hierarchy. It was represented by a mixture of several animals but there were a significant number of varieties of dragons according to its habitat.

The dragon may possess horns or deer antlers. It is also often depicted with wings covered with scales or hairs. This dragon, the one we know best, is adorned with powerful claws and the air it blows can become cloud, rain or fire.

We added a turquoise carved in the shape of a turtle shell symbol of long life

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