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Flat Turquoise Prayer Beads
OriginTibet
Date20th century
Dimensions13 × 3 × 5/8 in.
MediumTurquoise, conch, silver, coral, wood, leather
Classification(s)
Credit LineRubin Museum of Art, Gift of Anne Breckenridge Dorsey
Object numberC2018.2.4
DescriptionThis Tibetan strand (trengwa) has a hundred turquoise disks that make a shorter strand of prayer beads. Judging from the number of the beads and the conch shell separator beads, the practice for which it was used was probably related to pacification. Alternatively the number of beads might not be symbolic but instead the round number was chosen to make the counting of accumulated mantras easier. This highly personalized strand shows the peculiar taste of its previous owner, who added items such as random beads and plastic buttons to one of its counters as adornments.Not on view
early 19th century
19th century
19th century
Date unknown
Date unknown
18th century
19th century
late 19th century
19th century
ca. 1800
early 19th century
Date unknown
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