Old yak bone kapala mala with a charming rustique look.
This mala has been made in a traditional Tibetan style, stringing alternately yak bone beads with (faux) gemstone inlay (the little stone chips pressed in a clay base into the hollowed-out yak bone slices) and yak bone beads decorated with a small copper band.
This mala is a 'kapala mala'; the yak bone beads have been carved from the yak's skull bone. The skull bone is recognisable by its 'sandwich'-appearance; two layers of harder bone with a core of inner latticework. Kapala mala's are often especially used for the more wrathful practices in (mostly) Tibetan Buddhism. Traditionally they are made from human skull bone, acquired from the remains of Buddhist practitioners after proper sky burials. Nowadays unfortunately, because of the high value for such items among western collectors, also a lot of kapala mala's from not that ethical collected human bone circulate the market to meet the demands for it (for example from graverobbing and executed prisoners). And of course also less eccentric and therefore less expensive alternatives have been found by using animal bones, such as is also the case withn this yak bone kapala mala.
In this old mala, almost all the stone inlay has gone lost over time, leaving only the hollowed-out yak bone slices. And the copper bands on the other beads have corroded over time, spreading a blue color around them. All and all one might say, this mala is not in good condition anymore. But on the other hand, maybe that's exactly what makes it all the more charming.
Total length of this mala is approximately 76 centimeters and total weight is 128 grams. The yak bone slices are approximately 1,5 centimeters diameter and 0,5-0,8 centimeters high.
