Pair of Ancient Nineteen Stripe Chung Dzi, 46.4×11.8mm & 46.9×11.6mm, over 1,500 years (Ac-080420-19SChung)

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

Around the drill holes of Bead A, the stone has turned blue-green — and that colour is not the agate. It is the chemistry of burial, preserved for over fifteen hundred years.

What is visible in Images 3 and 6 around the drill hole openings of Bead A is a ring of blue-green mineral crust: a deposit that forms through long-term contact between agate and the mineral-rich compounds present in burial soil — copper-bearing minerals, silicates, and carbonates that interact with the stone surface over centuries and leave their own permanent record. It cannot be replicated. It cannot be applied. It is among the most direct physical evidence of extreme age that a bead can carry, and it is visible in the photographs exactly as it is. Bead B carries its own record differently — a deep, rough, pervasive weathering that has softened every stripe edge and settled into every pore of the surface across its full body length. Together, these two beads have had different experiences of the same long passage of time, and both are legible.

Nineteen stripes. This is the highest stripe count of any bead in the collection — more than double the nine-stripe antique At-110223-9SBS, nearly three times the ancient seven-stripe pieces. On a bead body of 46–47mm, nineteen bands means the stripes and ground intervals between them are compressed into narrow, tightly spaced registers that give the surface a dense, ribbed character unlike anything else in this collection. The stripes are sandy-tan to warm grey-tan in colour — not the bright white of the younger Chung dzi, but a colour that has absorbed centuries of patina — on a deep dark grey-brown to near-pitch-black ground that has itself been transformed by age and weathering until its original blackness reads now as something deeper and less uniform.

The body form of each bead is a true long cylinder — tubular, with only the slightest rounding at the ends. There is no fusiform taper. Both beads measure nearly identical lengths (46.4mm and 46.9mm) with diameters of 11.8mm and 11.6mm respectively, but they are not mechanically identical: Bead A carries heavier surface encrustation and the distinctive burial mineral deposit at its drill holes; Bead B shows slightly more surface definition in the stripe bands on its lateral faces, with its own pervasive weathering of a different character. The drill holes on both beads are large and irregularly shaped — ancient hand-drilling technique, enlarged further through centuries of cord wear at the hole edges.

The surface of both beads is entirely matte. There is no gloss remaining on either bead — not on the ground zones, not on the stripe bands. The surfaces have been transformed by time into something granular, textured, and complex: mineral deposits have settled into the stripe surfaces; the dark ground zones show rough weathering throughout. In every other Chung dzi in this collection — including the ancient seven-stripe pieces estimated at 1,000–1,500 years — some surface gloss survives. On these two beads, at over 1,500 years, it does not.

No other listing in the collection is a pair of ancient Chung dzi. The seven-stripe ancient group — Ac-081020-7SChung (SeS-1), Ac-041320-7SChung (SeS-2), and Ac-080620-7SChung (SeS-3) — are all single beads, all estimated at 1,000–1,500 years, and none carries burial mineral deposits at the drill holes or the complete loss of surface gloss that defines this pair. This listing is the oldest Chung dzi in the collection, sold as an inseparable pair.

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The Nineteen Stripe Motif — 瓊珠十九線紋

Nineteen stripe Chung dzi (瓊珠十九線紋) are among the rarest stripe counts in the Tibetan and Himalayan bead tradition. Numbers above nine do not follow the same cosmological symbolism as the lower counts — they are not read numerologically in the same way. Instead, high-stripe beads are valued for the density of the composition itself: the accumulation of continuous unbroken circuits around the bead's body, each stripe another layer of protection, another unbroken line of fortune that cannot be crossed. Nineteen circuits. Nineteen unbroken lines. In collections where such pieces survive, they are regarded not as beads of a single quality but as beads that have gathered quality through sheer repetition — each stripe one more layer between the wearer and misfortune.

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Motif: Nineteen stripe (十九線紋); nineteen narrow acid-etched horizontal bands per bead; sandy-tan to warm grey-tan stripes on deep dark grey-brown to near-pitch-black weathered ground; stripe edges softened through surface weathering; dense compressed banding composition
Length: Bead A: 46.4mm; Bead B: 46.9mm
Diameter: Bead A: 11.8mm; Bead B: 11.6mm
Form: True long cylinder (tubular); minimal end taper; large irregularly shaped drill holes at both ends of each bead (ancient hand-drill with cord-wear enlargement)
Material: Natural agate; deep dark grey-brown to near-pitch-black weathered ground; sandy-tan to warm grey-tan acid-etched stripe bands; entirely matte surface — no gloss remaining
Age Estimate: Over 1,500 years
Condition: Heavy pervasive surface weathering and mineral encrustation throughout both beads (age markers, fully disclosed); blue-green burial mineral deposit crust around both drill hole openings on Bead A (disclosed, Images 3 and 6); stripe edges softened through weathering; small white mineral spot on Bead B right end cap (disclosed, Image 7); no chips; no structural cracks visible
Bloodspots: None
Product ID: Ac-080420-19SChung
Collection: Ancient Chung Dzi | Ancient Dzi Beads

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You may also like:

• Ancient Seven Stripe Chung Dzi SeS-1 — Ac-081020-7SChung — Seven stripes, acutely tapered fusiform, 1,000–1,500 yrs
• Ancient Seven Stripe Chung Dzi SeS-2 — Ac-041320-7SChung — Seven stripes, warm honey-brown ground, 1,000–1,500 yrs
• Ancient Seven Stripe Chung Dzi SeS-3 — Ac-080620-7SChung — Seven stripes, grey-brown ground, surface scratch marks, 1,000–1,500 yrs
• Antique Nine Stripe Chung Dzi with Bloodspots — At-110223-9SBS — Nine stripes, pitch-black ground, cinnabar, 300–500 yrs

From the blog:

• What Is a Chung Dzi? Understanding Striped Agate Beads
• How to Identify Genuine Antique Dzi Beads

Nineteen unbroken lines. Over fifteen hundred years. Two beads that have kept count of every one.

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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