Old brass thogchag pendant Pair of Golden Fishes

Nice old pendant depicting one of the Tibetan Buddhist Eight Auspicious Symbols; the Pair of Golden Fish.

The Pair of Golden Fish represents how being truly at one with your element (i.e. becoming the so-called ‘fish in the water’) frees you from (often self-created) pains and fears and thus results in liberation and freedom.

This brass pendant is made to resemble an ancient 'thogchag' (or 'thokcha'). Thogchags are small metal objects, worn as amulets. Their history can be dated back thousands of years and the real thogchags are said to be made of meteorite iron (or at least a metal alloy which also includes meteorite iron) and have fallen from the sky or magically produced when a thunderbolt strikes the earth. 

Thogchags can be made in several forms and often depict tantric deities, mythological or real animals or ancient symbols. Also ritual attributes such as phurba's or dorje's can often be found and even more daily, practical attributes such as arrowheads, fibulae and pieces of horse equipment. They often are very abstract in their depictions, which for really old pieces of course further increases by being worn out into smooth surfaces and gaining a distinct patina.

Real ancient thogchags are of course highly sought after and can be extremely expensive. So of course in more recent times also many 'new' thogchags are made, resembling the style and depictions of the old ones.

This Tibetan pendant here in our shop is such a recently made thogchag, though the term 'recent' might not be completely adequate, because this pendant also has quite some years of age to it already. It might not be antique, but certainly of some respectable age already. It has some small imperfections due to its age, most noteable of which is a small damage at the bottom edge. Also some dirt has gotten into the grooves of the decoration over time. With some very soft brush (always being careful not to damage the beautiful aged patina) this could most likely be largely cleaned again.

This pendant weighs 18 grams. Size is approximately 4 centimeters wide and 3,5 centimeters high.