Five Stripe Cho Dzi 措思天珠, 57.5 × 13.1mm, milky translucent grey-white, pitch-black bands (Ac-061426-5SChung)

We never retouch our photos. What you see is exactly what you will receive.

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Every other striped dzi in this collection has a dark ground and a lighter stripe. This one is the inverse — and the ground is not just pale, it is translucent.

The agate from which this bead was formed is milky and semi-translucent — the quality of fogged or frosted glass, where light enters the stone and diffuses within it rather than reflecting cleanly from the surface. The result is a ground that is not simply a pale colour but a material condition: cool milky grey-white, slightly luminous, with the internal diffusion of translucent chalcedony-type agate visible in every photograph. In Images 4 and 7 this quality is most apparent — the end cap tips and the ground zones between the stripe bands glow with a soft, interior light rather than the flat opacity of a surface colour. Against this translucent milky ground, the five pitch-black stripe bands read with an absolute, contained clarity — the deepest black element in the Chung dzi collection, set into a stone that seems to want to be light.

This is a Five Stripe Cho Dzi (措思天珠) — a specific category within the Chung dzi tradition defined by both its stripe count and its etching technique. The Cho dzi process darkens selected zones of the agate surface to a deep, even black while leaving the untreated natural agate as the pale element. The result inverts the colour logic of every other Chung dzi in this collection, where the body ground is the dark zone and the stripe bands are lighter. Here the dark zones are the applied marks; the pale translucent agate is the field. This reversal is not merely visual — it reflects a different technical approach to the same stripe tradition, producing a different kind of object from the same vocabulary.

The five stripe bands are clean-edged, smooth-surfaced, and evenly saturated across all four face views. There is none of the rough granular mineralised texture of standard acid-etching — the band edges are sharp and contained, the black is consistent, the surface across both band and ground zones is polished to an exceptional gloss that reads as near-mirror quality in the photographs. The distinction between the frosted translucency of the milky ground and the opaque saturation of the pitch-black bands creates a surface contrast that is both immediate and refined — the two materials reading as completely different in character even before their colour difference registers.

The milky ground does vary slightly across the four face views — slightly cooler and more clearly grey-white on Face D (Image 5), fractionally warmer and more diffused on Face B (Image 3). This variation is natural to the agate and reflects the stone's internal layering structure rotating into and out of alignment with the viewing angle.

At 57.5mm × 13.1mm this is the longest bead in the Chung dzi group. The body form is an elongated fusiform with a slightly asymmetric bilateral taper — the left end tapers more gradually than the right (Images 6 and 7). Both tips are intact, both drill holes are clean and centred. No chips, no scratches, no surface damage of any kind.

This bead has no equivalent elsewhere in the collection. Every other Chung dzi carries a dark body and lighter bands; every other striped bead is acid-etched on a dark agate ground. This is the only Cho dzi technique piece listed, the only pale-ground striped bead, and the only translucent agate in the Chung dzi group.

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The Five Stripe Cho Dzi (五條措思天珠 / Wǔ Tiáo Cuòsī Tiānzhū)

The 措思天珠 (Cuòsī Tiānzhū) designation here refers to the Cho dzi category — a specific type of striped dzi bead identified by its etching technique, in which selected zones of the agate surface are treated to a deep black while the natural stone remains as the pale ground. This is distinct from the standard acid-etching technique used in most Chung dzi, where the body is darkened and the stripes are the resistant untreated zones. The Cho dzi technique produces a visually inverted result that has its own tradition and its own place within the broader Chung dzi family. Five stripes carry the stripe tradition's fundamental meaning — the continuous line, unbroken success, the path that holds its direction through every obstacle — in a stone where that meaning is expressed through the interplay of translucent milky agate and contained pitch-black: the ground as light, the mark as dark, and the contrast between them as the bead's defining quality.

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Specifications

Motif: Five Stripe Cho Dzi (五條措思天珠 / Wǔ Tiáo Cuòsī Tiānzhū); five pitch-black stripe bands; Cho dzi etching technique; milky translucent grey-white agate ground; clean smooth band edges; three bands visible per face
Length: 57.5mm
Diameter: 13.1mm
Form: Elongated fusiform; slightly asymmetric bilateral taper; moderately rounded tips; widest at centre
Material: Natural milky semi-translucent agate — cool grey-white frosted ground with internal light diffusion; pitch-black Cho dzi etched stripe bands, clean-edged and smooth-surfaced; mirror-quality gloss across all zones
Age Estimate: 700–1,000 years
Condition: Excellent. No chips. No scratches. No calcification. No tip damage. No rework. No medicine digs. Both drill holes clean and intact.
Bloodspots: None observed
Product ID: Ac-061426-5SChung
Collection: Ancient Dzi Beads | Antique Dzi Beads

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• Antique Seven Stripe Chung Dzi (At-061920-7SChung) — seven stripe, warm honey-brown ground / cream bands, 200–300 years
• Ancient Single Stripe Chung Dzi with Bloodspots (Ac-061426-1SChungBS) — pitch-black body / white ends, cinnabar bloodspots, 1,500–2,000 years
• Antique Single Stripe Chung Dzi (At-020726-Chung) — natural bicolour agate, no etching, ~500 years
• Antique Four Stripe Agate Dzi (At-061426-4Str) — acid-etched four stripe, dark ground, barrel form, contrasting tradition, 300–500 years

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From the blog

• What Makes a Dzi Bead Authentic? — on etching techniques, the Cho dzi tradition, and how surface and material character distinguish authentic ancient dzi
• The Meaning of the Stripe Motif in Dzi Tradition — on the Chung dzi family, stripe count, and the distinctive place of the Cho dzi type within the tradition

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Five pitch-black bands in a stone that reads like frosted glass — the same stripe tradition, and the only bead in the collection that carries it in translucent milky agate.

We never retouch our photos. What you see is exactly what you will receive.

📷 We never retouch our photos. Every bead is photographed exactly as it is. What you see is what you receive.

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