Four Leaf Bodhi Dzi, Two Leaves Per Face, 46.9×11.9mm, Cool Dark Grey-Brown Agate, 800–1,000 Years (Ac-061826-FLB2)

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

The two photographs that tell you the most about the age of this bead are not the ones showing the motif — they are the ones showing the connector faces, where eight hundred years of surface weathering has turned the dark ground rough and granular in a way no younger bead can replicate.

Images 3 and 5 show the upper and lower connector faces: broad cream-white horizontal band zones with warm honey-brown centre stripe lines crossing them at right angles, forming a T-bar or grid structure. The cream-white etching on these faces remains clean and well-defined. But the dark grey-brown ground between and around those cream bands has been transformed by time into something that is not smooth and not gloss — it is rough, matte, and micro-pitted, with a granular surface texture that has developed over centuries of weathering and handling. This is the face the bead presents when you rotate it 90°, and it is the face that most honestly communicates what 800–1,000 years looks like on natural agate.

The lateral faces carry the Four Leaf Bodhi composition: two bodhi leaf forms per face, four in total across the full circumference. Each leaf is rendered as a cream-white pointed-oval or heart-form curve — the characteristic asymmetric teardrop shape of the bodhi leaf in dzi tradition — with a warm honey-brown interior zone and a dark triangular or heart-shaped void at the leaf's centre. On Face A (Images 2 and 4 from opposite orientations) and Face B (Image 4), the two leaf forms on each face face each other across the central vertical divider, their open ends pointing outward toward the respective end tips. The central divider between the leaves is a pair of cream-white vertical stripe bands with a warm honey-brown stripe running between them — a structural element that both separates and connects the two leaves on each face. The result on each lateral face is a bilaterally symmetrical composition: two leaves curving outward from the centre, one toward each end, like a motif that is always opening rather than closing.

The ground throughout is a cool dark grey-brown — distinct from the warm chocolate-brown of the antique Four Leaf Bodhi bead At-101624-FLB and from the pitch-black of the darkest beads in this collection. It is a cool-toned dark grey with brown warmth, visible in all photographs against the white background, and it gives the cream-white motif lines a cooler, more silvered quality than they would carry on a warm ground. The motif lines themselves are bright cream-white with slight warm honey-brown warmth at the interior zones of each leaf — the honey-brown colour of the agate showing through the etched bodhi leaf interior where the whitening treatment was applied more lightly. This two-tone interior — cream ring around honey-brown field — is characteristic of the Four Leaf Bodhi motif in its most authentic ancient form.

The drill holes at both ends are small, round, well-centred, with warm reddish-brown interiors visible in Images 6 and 7. The end tips are cool grey-brown, blending the body colour to the extreme pole. No chips, cracks, medicine digs, or structural damage are present. No bloodspot inclusions are detected in any photograph.

This is the older of two Four Leaf Bodhi dzi in this collection. At-101624-FLB is antique — 200+ years, honey-brown agate, 35.7×12.1mm, warm and smooth-surfaced. Ac-061826-FLB2 is ancient — 800–1,000 years, cool dark grey-brown agate, 46.9×11.9mm, with the rough connector face weathering that centuries of additional age produce. The two beads carry the same motif. Everything else about them — ground colour, surface character, age, and physical presence — places them in different eras entirely.

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The Four Leaf Bodhi Motif 四葉菩提天珠

The bodhi leaf (菩提葉, pútí yè) in Tibetan dzi tradition derives its significance from the Ficus religiosa — the sacred fig tree under which Shakyamuni Buddha sat when he attained full enlightenment. The leaf of that tree became one of the most widely recognised symbols of awakening in the Buddhist world: the moment when clarity broke through completely, when the nature of suffering and the path beyond it became fully visible. In dzi tradition, four bodhi leaves distributed around the full circumference of a bead represents enlightenment available in all directions simultaneously — not a single moment of awakening that faces one way, but a continuous field of clarity with no blind side and no unawakened angle. The four leaves of this bead, distributed two per lateral face, ensure that whichever face you hold toward you, two leaves are opening outward from the centre — the motif is always in the act of opening, always in the act of becoming clear.

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Spec Block

Motif: Four Leaf Bodhi 四葉菩提天珠 (sì yè pútí tiānzhū); two bodhi leaf forms per lateral face, four total; each leaf: cream-white pointed-oval heart-form curve with warm honey-brown interior and dark triangular/heart-shaped central void; leaves face each other across central paired stripe divider with honey-brown centre stripe; leaves open outward toward end tips on each face; connector faces carry T-bar/grid cream-white band structure
Length: 46.9mm
Diameter: 11.9mm
Form: Elongated fusiform; round cross-section; symmetrically tapered at both ends; small well-centred drill holes at both tips
Material: Cool dark grey-brown agate ground throughout; warm reddish-brown drill hole interiors; bright cream-white acid-etched motif lines with warm honey-brown interior zones within leaf forms; matte to semi-matte surface
Age Estimate: 800–1,000 years
Condition: No chips, cracks, medicine digs, or rework; lateral faces semi-matte with age-appropriate surface character; connector faces matte-granular with pronounced micro-pitting consistent with 800–1,000 years of weathering — fully disclosed and visible in Images 3 and 5
Bloodspots: None detected
Product ID: Ac-061826-FLB2
Collection: Ancient Dzi Beads | Bodhi Dzi

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You May Also Like

Other ancient agate and bodhi pieces from this collection:

At-101624-FLB — Antique Four Leaf Bodhi Dzi — the other Four Leaf Bodhi in the collection; honey-brown agate; warm smooth surface; 35.7×12.1mm; 200+ years

Ac-030525-3E — Ancient Three Eye Dzi — ancient period; cool dark ground; 500–700 years; 50.8×12.9mm

Ac-080425-4E — Ancient Four Eye Dzi — ancient period; square-framed eyes; deep dark warm brown; 800–1,000 years; 49.5×12.6mm

At-043026-GT — Antique Green Tara Dzi — flowing Tara abstraction; deep dark chocolate-brown; 200+ years; 41.4×12.0mm

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Further Reading

What Are Dzi Beads? Origins, Meaning & Collecting Guide
The Bodhi Tree and the Path to Enlightenment

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Eight hundred years old, four leaves still opening.

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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