Agarwood mala

The specific kind of beaded necklaces known as mala’s are quite familiair nowadays. Often they are simply worn as jewelry-with-a-spiritual touch, but they have a very ancient and rich history.

The earliest known examples of beads used in a spiritual context can be found in India, where Hindu monks moved loose shells, stones, grains or beads from one side to another to support in keeping focus and concentration and keep count of the number of repetitions of mantra’s or prayers during their spiritual practice. Another variation was to tie knots in a piece of cord or rope for that purpose. Around the 8^th century BCE, In India and Nepal, these two variations were combined to stringing the beads on a cord, and thus the mala was born.

From early Hinduism the mala also found its way into Buddhism and eventually its usage spread further into the world in lots of different religions and spiritual traditions. For example; in western Christianity the string of prayer beads is called ‘rosary’ or ‘pater noster cord’ and in the Islam it’s known as ‘mishaba’ or ‘tasbi’.

In different traditions there are of course many variations in the appearance of the prayer beads; for example in how many beads are strung on the cord or from which material the beads are made. Mala’s with a buddhist origin often are made with 108 beads, in many eastern traditions a sacred number with different symbolic meanings. It refers to, for example, the 108 names of Shiva, the 108 different kinds of desire that obscure our human minds or  the 108 Upanishads, sacred Sanskrit texts sharing wisdom in the last part of the Veda’s.

These mala’s here in our shop are made with 108 beads from Vietnamese agarwood, also known as oudh, scarlet tree or eagle tree. Properties that are attributed to this slightly aromatic kind of wood (the smell is subtle, sweet and spicy and reminds somewhat of leather) are for example; it calms the nervous system and facilitates transition to the afterlife. Also in christianity, especially catholicism, agarwood has a special meaning. Here it is associated with the Virgin Mary.

The beads are strung on a brown, elastic cord, which makes it also easy to wear them for example as bracelet. Total length of the mala is approximately 60 centimeters (measured not stretched). Each bead has a diameter of approximately 6 millimeters.

These mala's come to us via our friends at Shaman Bazar. They come with a certificate of origin, confirming the authenticity of the agarwood beads.