Four Tibetan Tabular Sheep’s Eye Dzi Beads (Luk Mik)

Dzi beads (also spelt zi, gzi, tsi) are prized as protective and healing amulets. The four examples shown here, of banded agate, are known as tabular or sheep’s eye dzi beads. In Tibetan, they are known as luk mik. Each is domed, with a flatter reverse, and of varying shades of brown and yellow. They have been cut and polished so that each looks like an eye. One is especially larger than most.

Such beads were valued highly in Tibet but originated from outside. Sherr Dubin (2009, p. 309) illustrates related beads, suggests a Western Asian provenance, and dates them to 3000-1000 BC.

They differ to the more usual dzi bead type which is of tapering, barrel-form agate, usually with designs that have been chemically etched onto the surface. The examples here are of untreated agate that has been polished to reveal circle motifs in the alternating browns and creams of the natural agate. The reverse of each is plain and is usual for sheep’s eye dzi beads.

Each bead has been hand cut and polished, and drilled by hand. The hand shaping accounts for the unevenness in the roundness of each bead.

The drilling of each bead has proceeded from each side of the bead so that the hole will meet in the middle of the bead, but as is the case with ancient beads, the drillings from each side do not quite align perfectly – an important sign of antiquity. (New beads are machine-drilled and the holes in them typically are straight and uniform.)

There is good string wear to the drilled holes of the beads.

The time and place of manufacture of dzi beads is a mystery. Tibetans and other Himalayan people valued the beads highly, and some regarded the beads as having supernatural origins: it was believed that they had either fallen to earth being dropped by the sky gods, or that they were created deep within the earth. It is unlikely that the beads were made in Tibet itself and possibly came from Persia, India, or Burma, during ancient times.

Dzi beads are believed to protect their wearers. When a bead spontaneously breaks then it is believed to have served its purpose – it has absorbed danger and broken as a consequence.

Dzi beads have become so valuable that few Tibetans own more than a few beads, and are wary of wearing them openly for fear of theft.

The four examples here are all in fine condition, with clear signs of great age and wear from ample use.

 

A young Tibetan noble woman wearing necklaces that include multiple dzi beads (Lhasa, early 20th century).