Green Tara & Bloodspots, 30.3×11.3mm, dark brown agate, medicine dig (At-082326-GTBS)

🏛️ Ancient Dzi Shop specialises in authentic ancient and antique Tibetan dzi beads. Every piece is sold with unretouched photographs and honest condition disclosure.

This bead carries a medicine dig — the mark of a dzi that was used, not just kept — and natural cinnabar runs through its cream zones.

In Tibetan tradition, a small amount of material was sometimes scraped from an old dzi to be taken as medicine, leaving a mark like the one on this bead. Here it sits just above the drill hole on one end, a modest feature that would go unnoticed without close examination. Macro photography of the surrounding zones shows natural cinnabar inclusions across the cream ground: a warm reddish-orange dot scatter pervasive throughout the pale motif-line zones, documented in two macro photographs and visible in standard photography as a warm honey-orange tinge that suffuses what might otherwise read as plain cream.

The Green Tara motif itself — the flowing cursive scroll that hooks and loops across the dark brown ground — reads most clearly on Face A, where the cream line curves upward, reverses, and resolves into a form that has been described across centuries of Tibetan tradition as the moving figure of the compassionate bodhisattva herself. Face B carries the continuation of the same composition — the wave variant that completes the circuit of the bead. Between the two faces, at the shoulder and end zones, the cream lines carry the warm reddish-orange tinge of the cinnabar, giving this piece a warmth that cooler-toned pieces in the same motif family do not have.

The ground is dark brown — a genuine, warm, medium-deep brown that is clearly distinct from the very dark or near-black grounds of the other Green Tara pieces in this collection. Across all white-background photos the warmth is consistently visible, and the cream motif lines read against it with good contrast without the stark opposition of a pitch-black piece.

Age-consistent surface crystallisation is visible in macro across the cream zones — a fine mineral texture that documents the centuries of change within the stone. No chips or cracks are observed.

The Green Tara Motif

Green Tara (སྒྲོལ་མ་ལྗང་ཁུ, Drolma Jangkhu) is one of the most beloved figures in Tibetan Buddhist devotion — a female bodhisattva known for her swift, active compassion and her immediate response to those who call upon her in difficulty. She is associated with the removal of obstacles, the vitality of the natural world, and protective energy that acts without delay. A dzi bead bearing her motif is understood as a carrier of that active compassionate energy — a companion for navigating obstruction and difficulty in daily life. Several Green Tara dzi are in this collection, each on a different ground colour — making it possible to compare how the same motif reads across dark brown, very dark brown, and pitch-black agate.

Spec Block

Motif: Green Tara
Length: 30.3mm
Diameter: 11.3mm
Form: Barrel, fusiform
Material: Agate, dark brown ground with cream-white motif lines
Age Estimate: 200–400 years
Condition: Very good for age. Medicine dig present at one drill end — a traditional mark of use, disclosed. Age-consistent surface crystallisation visible in macro. No chips or cracks observed.
Bloodspots: Prominent — cinnabar (硃砂/zhūshā, mercuric sulfide). Cream-zone focused, pervasive warm reddish-orange micro-dot scatter throughout pale motif-line zones; visible in standard photography as a warm honey-orange tinge across cream lines. Documented in two macro photographs.
Product ID: At-082326-GTBS
Collection: Antique Dzi | Bloodspot Dzi | All Products

Other Green Tara dzi in this collection:
Antique Green Tara — At-043026-GT — chocolate-brown ground.
Antique Green Tara — At-080426-GTBS — pitch-black ground, straight-sided barrel.
Antique Green Tara — At-080426-GTBS2 — very dark brown ground, fusiform.

Further reading:
Who Is Green Tara?
Tara Dzi Beads: Which Eye Connects to Which Goddess
Bloodspots on Dzi Beads: What Cinnabar Dots Are

Every antique dzi bead at Ancient Dzi Shop is photographed without retouching, filters, or enhancement — what you see is exactly what you receive.

🏛️ Ancient Dzi Shop — Authentic ancient and antique Tibetan dzi beads, honestly presented.

All 8 product photographs are unretouched. Ground colour, medicine dig, bloodspot distribution, and surface age texture are exactly as seen.