A Gau Box and a Tibetan Bead Adventure

1 August 2020

“Tibetan Gau Box”

In 1993-4, Don and I lived in Hong Kong. I discovered ethnic beads at the fabulous bazaars located in alleys and byways and became enamored of the giant orange and yellow beads that were described as those worn by Tibetan nomads. I asked Don to take me to Tibet on one of his business trips to Beijing. Ha! Impossible since it is located on a 5000’ high plateau in distant southwest China.

So I convinced him to have an adventure travel vacation in Tibet. Be informed adventure travel translates as difficult travel, as in one-star or no-star accommodations, toilets that range from pots under the bed to blackened porcelain with no seat, mattresses that feel like plywood, walking a lot, crossing the Himalayan mountains with a view of Everest in a jitney without any shock absorbers…a trip to Katmandu, Nepal, that took 24 hours including the overnight accommodations described above.

The pleasures of adventure travel are close-ups of the native population, interesting food, cultural immersion, different religions. And beads. No bead shops, just go to the village square and the traders find you. Whew. The first lesson is to push away the crowds, establish some control, and patiently look, point, and bargain. What wild memories!

These Gau boxes were my most unusual finds! Today’s necklace features an excellent specimen. I paid $100 for it and it is $490 on Etsy as I looked for one today. As you know, I don’t mark up the original price I paid. No need to, since you, my dear readers, are looking for an interesting necklace, not a collector’s item for a display case.

Gau (sometimes Gao) boxes are antiques today, less than 30 years after our first visit. We returned again in the late 90’s and the change was sad—China had infiltrated Han Chinese into Tibet in a massive relocation program to dilute Tibetan culture. As a result, many Tibetans have crossed the mountains into Nepal where they are respected in their enclaves

These boxes contain Buddhist paper prayers and relics folded into the box, and worn around the neck, near one’s heart, by Tibetan nomads or travelers. It also is an amulet to ward off negative energy and attract blessings (just like those fluttering strings of flags placed in the mountains). Like any antique, they have patina, the fancy word for wear marks and nicks over time.

This necklace is 24” from clasp to bottom of box which is 2.5” diameter and 5/8” thick. The clasp is hammered pewter. The necklace weighs 7.7 ounces. The set is $195.

The beads are dyed coral shell pearls. These pearls are made from the lining of oyster shells, ground, shaped, dyed, and coated with a lustrous shine. They do not lose color or shine due to sweat or perfume. I also like them because they come in large sizes for a reasonable price.

At the beginning and end of the necklace and in the earrings are other Tibetan beads with silver decorative endcaps. The beads in those endcaps and the center of the Gao Box are the same orange beads I first saw in Hong Kong…seems they come in all sizes.

These are two other Gau Boxes I bought on that trip. They are shaped like shrines which is another use of the Gau Box. The large one is a wonderful speciman with many cultural icons carved in the silver and a wonderful polychromed deity in the window.

The small one is so old the silver plate wore off to its copper base.

A Max Moment

I dare not disappoint Max’s followers. Here he is trying to dismember his stuffed toy, but his smart Mom bought him a leather toy and it takes a really long time for him to destroy it. Approaching 28 months.

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Postscript: I imagine there are prayers and relics still in these boxes but I am afraid of ruining them if I attempt to open/close the boxes, so I don’t. I just imagine. I encourage readers to use their imagination also.

NOTHING BASIC ABOUT THESE BLACKS: Sicilian Version and Tibetan Version

1 August 2018

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“Otherness”

BLACK LAVA BEADS OF SICILY WITH CORAL.

I’m not sure if I mentioned I spent a week in Sicily in early April. My reason for flying into Palermo after four lovely days in Rome was to meet up with a group from Oldways, a Boston firm very interested in nutrition and a sponsor of Culunarias, aka cooking classes in interesting parts of the world.

Sicilian cooking is living history born out of serial conquest. Each wave of conquerers has shaped the Sicilian table. The Greeks came bearing gifts of honey, wine, ricotta and olives, followed by the rapacious Roman cultivators of wheat and grains. After invasion by the Vandals who introduced meat dishes, a return to Greek Byzantine rule boosted local agriculture with the establishment of monasteries across the island, bringing their taste for sharp cheeses and spicy biscuits. North African Arabs and Berbers brought citrus trees, spices, nuts and, yes, dried pasta and coffee beans.

Here is a summary of what we did: we lunched with Mary Taylor Simeti (1); drove to the rural wine estate of Regaleali and had our farmhouse lunch made in front of our eyes at the Anna Tasca Lanza Cooking School (2); we ambled around Palermo’s daily fresh market on a street food tour (3), eating five specialities and finishing at the lively Taverna Azzurea with local wine to sip! We drove south-central to Agrigento, an ancient Greek city, quite intact, with an acropolis, viaduct, and temples galore. Then we finished our stay at Ortigia, a lovely island reached by a short foot and auto bridge, very close to Syracuse and Mount Etna, where our new best friend, Chef Maurizio Noceo, guided us around his favorite vendors at the fresh market, showed us how ricotta is made and cooked our goodbye dinner at his restaurant Marcelle. In between, our expert guide/chef, Catherine Katz demo-ed a lunch of tasty but nutritious food and we toured Planeta Vineyards(4).

Whew! A super-fast food tour. Now for the beads. I’ve been buying lava beads throughout my beading career, but never imagined I could find some Mt. Etna lava beads on this trip. I also found the coral in the earrings there, but Sicilian coral was depleted in the 18th century, so this coral came from somewhere else.

Interestingly enough, Mt. Etna was in an erupting stage while we were there.

The necklace measures 19″ and is $69 for the set. It weighs 2.7 ounces.

PAINTED BLACK PRAYER BEADS OF TIBET

“Holy Mala”

These prayer beads are made by Tibetans. I visited Tibet twice but it is becoming more difficult to find the true Tibet.

Historically, Tibet covers the Tibetan Plateau, an enormous space bordered by China and the Himalayas, sitting mostly at 16,000′ altitude, except for Mount Everest which at 29,000′ is the highest spot in Tibet and the world.

In 1993, I visited Lhasa with Don and bought many exceptional beads. I convinced Don to return a few years later: we spent some days in Tibet and then boarded a jitney to cross the Himalayas for two days to reach Katmandu, Nepal, which is currently home to many Tibetans in exile. In 1959 the Dalai Lama and many Tibetans fled to Dharamsala, India, and established a government-in-exile. During the Cultural Revolution, nearly one million Tibetans were killed and 6000 monasteries were destroyed. In the 70’s, China started relocating ethnic Chinese to Tibet in an effort to further dilute the Tibetan culture.

I admire the Tibetans and was happy to find these beads last year at Bella Beads in New Hampshire. They are clay beads made by the monks to help support the monastery; an image of Buddha is imprinted on them. What I like the most is the maroon paint which is the color of Tibetan Buddhist monks’ robes. The added gold paint symbolizes the sun which has a deep spiritual connotation for Buddhism (and has nothing to do with its Western connotation of wealth). Buddhism is the religion of peace, compassion, strength and wisdom.

The necklace also contains matte black glass beads from India. It is 18.5″ long and comes with matching earrings. $135. It weighs 5.2 ounces.

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(1) Mary Taylor Simeti moved from New York in 1962 to Palermo and fell in love with the terra and with Tonino Simeti. She raised two children and cooked her heart out. Son Francisco lives in San Francisco and designs wallpaper; daughter Natalia manages the family farm and vineyard. I enjoyed her delightful memoir, “On Persephone’s Island”, while traveling.

(2) You too can enroll at the Anna Tasca Lanza cooking school. Just google it.

(3) There are specialized guides who usher small groups through the market. Apparently there is a global ranking for street food; Palermo, Sicily is #5. I remember sitting on the curb in the financial district of Singapore, eating delectable street food. I wonder where they are in the rankings? They hose the street down daily. Hong Kong had lots of street food lean-tos, but please don’t sit on the gross curb.

(4) I have to mention the “national” red wine of Sicily since it is very good. Nero d’Avola. I found it near me fairly easily.

This is the longest blog I have ever posted…hope you made it this far! If so, thank you!

June 1, 2018: AMBER.3. Real Baltic Amber

1 June 2018

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“Rare Sagacity”

This amber is Baltic, and it is often called the real amber. There are other ambers from other places, but Baltic amber is the most available. Amber is fossilized tree resin—not sap which circulates through a tree’s vascular system—but resin which is secreted through canals in the epithelial cells of a pine tree. The real delight of amber is when bugs and plant material are captured in its resin and fossilize inside the amber. The thrill of amber is that these pieces could be 40 million years old.

The Necklace

Tibetan centerpieces are my most favorite to collect.

They always feature a large-sized stone bezeled onto a piece of silver or bronze which is richly engraved and decorated with a classic Asian animal. When I choose a Tibetan piece for a necklace, I invariably use matching beads strung fairly simply. And I try to find a creative clasp solution for the back of the necklace.

This necklace follows the pattern described above.

The Centerpiece

The centerpiece amber has interesting if indistinct inclusions.

The animal featured above it is a goose which the Asian culture loves because a migratory bird never fails to return. They also mate for life. Both themes signify longevity and constancy.

Notice also on the back of the centerpiece the image of a deer, much beloved in Tibetan Buddhism as well as in Tibetan folklore and legends based on themes of longevity.

I love how the deer is resting on a regal floral vine beautifully carved in brass.

The clasp

From the philosophical grounding of longevity themes, lift your eyes, dear reader, to the whimsical background of the clasp: in its prior life in the 1960’s, this chunk of amber was a cufflink! My friend Betty gave me a bag of broken and out-of-favor jewelry (I love it when friends do that!) with several amber cufflinks I treasured. Here it is, upcycled! Check out the inclusions.

Details

This necklace is 24” long; the centerpiece is 2.5” long; matching earrings are included. $99.

May 1, 2018: AMBER.2.Faux Amber (Resin)

1 May 2018

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“Heaven’s Gate”

One of the treasures I found while revisiting the Amber drawer was some faux amber beads I found in an outdoor market in Bhutan, a landlocked Himalayan nation in South Asia. Its 800,000 citizens are surrounded by India, Tibet and Nepal. They are peaceful Buddhists. Instead of GDP, Bhutan measures Happiness.

I knew the necklace was faux, but I bought it for the memories, not only of scenic Bhutan, but of the last trip Don and I made together before the ravages of Alzheimer’s disease were unleashed. Now, five years after Don’s death, I release these beads into the world. May they be someone’s personal measure of Happiness!

It was a gift of the two-toned resin beads from fellow artist Donna Goes* that made me think of the Bhutanese beads and I think they pair well together.

I added sterling silver beads and a Tibetan centerpiece of copal with pretty silver work.

Ah, copal: another twist to the Amber story. For 23 years, I have described it as “young amber,” just to make it more understandable to my clients, but always labeled it as copal. Now that I’ve researched it, I was correct: it is tree resin, like amber, but has not completed its fossilization. It is measured in thousands of years; Amber in millions. Copal is softer, opaque, citrine in color.

Weight: 8 ounces

Length: 20”

Price: $79

Size of largest bead: roughly 5/8” from hole to hole by 1” high. Centerpiece: 1.75″ hole to hole by 1″ high.

Wear your silver earrings.

*Read Donna Goes’ story and see her amazing fused plastic paintings at www.luckylife.com.

Heads up! Visit us both + 38 other talented artists at Hull Artists’ 23^rd annual Open Studios Art Tour on July 7-8 & August 18-19.

Drawer 45: Lapis Lazuli

8 November 2017

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“May There Always Be Something Left Over”

My Chinese Apothecary Chest: in 1994, it arrived via container to California from Hong Kong, where I discovered beading during my husband’s ex-pat assignment. Serves as the repository for my beads. Handcrafted. It has 52 Drawers, mostly sorted by color.

2017 Challenge: Create a Necklace a Week, using only the Beads from one Drawer at a time. Voila! 52 Necklaces!

Week 45/Drawer 45: November 8, 2017: “May There Always Be Something Left Over”

The first time I ever heard the words Lapis Lazuli (lapis is Roman for stone; lazuli is Persian for blue) was when I was matriculating at Emmanuel College, Boston, looking forward to becoming a junior and wearing our class ring which is gold with a rectangle of lapis as its centerpiece, designed by Tiffany in 1920.

I was late to the lapis game. The inhabitants of NE Afghanistan knew it in the 7^th millennium BC. It was Egyptian King Tut’s funeral mask in 1323 BC. The Western world didn’t catch on until lapis was imported to Europe in the Middle Ages where its powder was the choice of the great painters. I’ll refer to my favorite: Vermeer. Check out the “Girl with a Pearl Earring.” That blue paint is known as Ultramarine. The color is still on every painter’s palette, but the ingredients have been synthetic since the early 1800’s.

Lapis is prized for its deep celestial blue color. It is a rock, not a crystal. It is found in Afghani caves, not mines. It sparkles with…gold?…no…with Fool’s Gold or pyrite. There is an inferior form of lapis with white calcite streaks which I learned to avoid. Just pay more for the gold flecks.

This week’s necklace has flecks in every piece of the larger beads. The smaller beads, which I had to add to keep the weight down, is a brighter blue with few sparkles (and no white!). The sterling silver beads are a pleasing shape and further reduce the weight.

The centerpiece is magnificent for its large oval lapis, with lots of gold and a short streak of white, and for the Tibetan sterling silver base, carved with rich flourishes on the front and the back.

While living in Hong Kong, I loved browsing the many English bookstores. It was still British until the 1997 handover to China who promised “one country, two systems,” referring to the financial, free-market and democratically-governed systems of Hong Kong. In my opinion, the promise is eroding.

One of the books I treasure is “A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols” and I looked up the fish symbol which is prominently featured on the centerpiece. The well-carved pair of fish on the front are slightly worn, leading me to envision the wearer rubbing it as a talisman. Fish symbolize wealth which is so significant for Buddhists that it is one of their 8 symbols. I named this piece for the colloquial phrase for wishing others wealth.

When fish appear in a pair, it signifies harmony, and is often given as a wedding gift.

On the back of this piece is what I interpret to be a stylized fish. Pay attention to the design skill of the silversmith: beautiful flourishes, curves, almost rococo flair, expert three-dimensional detailing.

The necklace measures 19.5” and the centerpiece is 3.5” long by 2.75” wide. It weighs 8.2 ounces. After test driving it, I would say it is not heavy/not light, but average. Some of my necklaces are “three-hour”, this is a five-hour necklace! Wear your silver earrings with it. $139.

Drawer 44: Turquoise

1 November 2017

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Week 44/Drawer 44: November 1, 2017: “109^th Mala”

I remember buying this large Tibetan piece in the early 2000’s in New York City in a shop well-known for ethnic beads and objets. The price tag still stuck on the bottom said $150, but my note on the plastic bag said I paid $140…not my best negotiation! It was sold as an ear ornament from Gujarat. I accepted it as an ear ornament but when I looked up Gujarat, and learned it is in India, I doubted that was the true provenance.

This was clearly Tibetan. I’ve been there twice and have made necklaces with many pieces of their inlaid silver or brass with turquoise or coral: I know their style. So, I conducted a lengthy internet search and, after scrolling many pages on www.indianamulets.com.au, I found it! It was the only such piece out of a couple hundred images! To improve my negotiating image with my dear readers, allow me to inform you it was priced at $375, hanging on a silver chain.

On the keft, I present you the 109^th mala (prayer bead).

Buddhists and Hindus pray with 108 beads knotted and strung. One prays by meditating, touching a bead and saying this mantra,

“All is well.

Everything is perfect.

Wisdom and compassion uphold every atom!”

then on to the next bead, until one reaches the 109^th bead; called a stupa bead. A stupa is a Buddhist prayer hall and its steeple is in the exact shape of the centerpiece of this necklace. The 109^th serves a very special purpose: a pause. The pause offers silence, a moment to offer gratitude, and a practical way to keep count of their mantras and chants. Faithful Buddhists don’t just go around the mala once; they can meditate for hours.

I was interested to learn the significance of 108 beads: it is a mathematical (12 Zodiac houses x 9 planets) metaphor for the omnipresent universe which is also our most innate self. I would need to meditate for a long time to understand that metaphor!

The necklace features turquoise cylinders from Drawer 44 separated by sterling silver beads with a silver clasp. I made a nautilus-style sterling silver loop to attach the mala to the necklace.

The centerpiece Tibetan stupa bead is mixed metals—silver and brass—rising in a pattern to the pinnacle which is modeled after a Lotus flower with six petals inset with turquoise and coral cabochons. This 109^th mala was owned by someone who had the means to commission some very nice design and workmanship. It is strong, sturdy and magnificent! It is not heavy since it is hollow.

The necklace measures 25” and the mala is 5” long. Wear your silver earrings with it. $199.

Trunk Show

5 December 2013

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Hail West Coasters!

Hope to see you for my THIRD ANNUAL TRUNK SHOW…

Treasure

5 December 2013

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The two strand “Treasure” necklace is strung with heavy turquoise thread and “woven” through three turquoise beads every few inches. It ends with a coral clasp around a vintage button.
It measures 21” and the centerpiece is 3” long. It is priced at $155 which includes shipping and insurance.

Back in 1995 when I was learning how to make necklaces, the second class I took was called “Treasure Necklace” and I remembered how much I love to make them when my friend Penny gave me a broken down necklace of turquoise, jasper and pearls.

A treasure necklace is full of special things. This necklace has Penny’s beads, supplanted by coral twigs, Czech glass reddish barrel beads, coral seed beads, a button clasp from my Mom’s button box…and those are minor compared to the centerpiece gems.

The dangling centerpieces of a ring and a Buddha are amazing!

The ring has a silver setting with decorative sterling silver balls around the base set with a coral bead, commonly traded among Tibetans. I bought it from a Tibetan woman in an informal market in front of the fabulous Jokhang Temple in Barkhor Square, Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. While we were bartering, pilgrims behind us circumnavigated the temple which is a holy destination for Tibetans.

The ring is so large, it was obviously her husband’s whom I envisioned as a warrior of great girth. I bought it in 1993 since when it has been a much touched talisman; but I could never figure how to place it in a necklace…until now. To say it is a treasure underestimates it.

Well, since I am a person compelled to fill spaces, I stumbled across the “Laughing Buddha” and didn’t he just fit in the ……space?! It is a contemporary bead, bought locally and made of resin. However this Buddha has a long history: in the Song Dynasty, China, in 1000 AD, the Laughing Buddha, symbol of naïve geniality, became the most popular god in Eastern Asia.

The two strand necklace is strung with heavy turquoise thread and “woven” through three of Penny’s turquoise beads every few inches. It ends with a coral clasp around a vintage button.

It measures 21” and the centerpiece is 3” long. It is priced at $155 which includes shipping and insurance.

Priscilla Beadle

chunky bead jewelery

Category Archives: Buddha