Ancient Seven Stripe Chung Dzi, 59.7×16.9mm, warm brown ground, diagonal crossing stripes (Ac-031322-7SChung)

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

At 16.9mm in diameter, this is the widest Chung dzi in the collection — and the photographs make clear that the width is held across almost the full 59.7mm length.

Most fusiform beads taper steadily from their widest point toward both ends. This bead does not. It holds its 16.9mm diameter across the majority of its body, tapering only close to the tips, creating a form that reads as a substantial cylinder rather than a pointed oval. The result is a bead with more total mass than any other Chung dzi in the collection — the length makes it the longest alongside the vintage seven-stripe V-052222-7SChung (Vintage Seven Stripe), but the diameter makes this bead significantly heavier and more substantial in the hand. It is, as it reads in the photographs, a big bead.

The ground material is a warm rich brown natural agate — not dark, not grey, not pitch-black. It is a medium-to-deep warm brown with natural agate banding moving through the material: darker chocolate-brown zones sit alongside lighter honey-brown zones on the same bead, and the banding striations are visible as internal flow lines within the semi-translucent brown agate. The ground colour varies significantly across the four lateral faces — Face C (Image 4) shows a much lighter, sandy warm-brown zone where the agate's own banding has produced a pale field; Face A (Image 2) and Face D (Image 5) show the deeper chocolate-brown. No two faces read the same ground colour, and that variation is the natural agate speaking for itself.

The seven cream-white stripe bands do something on this bead that no other stripe pattern in the Chung dzi collection does: they lean. Rather than running in strict horizontal parallels, the stripes are angled — they tilt diagonally across the body surface, and on certain faces (Image 4 most clearly) they appear to cross each other, producing X-intersections where two stripe directions meet. This is a compositional character that results from how the bead was positioned during the etching process, and it gives the pattern a dynamic, flowing quality entirely different from the rigid parallel registers of the other pieces. The stripe surfaces carry the rough granular texture of aged ancient etching — not clean crisp lines but weathered, slightly irregular bands that have deepened into the brown agate surface over six to eight centuries.

The end cap faces (Images 6 and 7) show the warm honey-brown of the agate at the tips — both drill holes are small and centrally placed, with warm reddish-brown interior channels. The surface across the body is a satin to semi-gloss finish, with fine natural agate texture and micro-pitting across the warm brown ground zones consistent with the bead's age.

This bead stands apart from every other piece in the Chung dzi collection on three axes simultaneously: it has the warmest ground colour (medium warm brown versus the dark grey-brown to pitch-black of all other ancient and antique Chung dzi), the widest diameter (16.9mm versus the next widest at 13.9mm), and the only diagonal crossing stripe pattern in the group. The ancient grey-black-white Ac-101922-7SChung (Seven Stripe, Grey-Black Ground) and the bloodspot irregular Ac-111720-7SOS (Seven Stripe Bloodspots, Odd Form) each differ from this bead in every material dimension.

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The Seven Stripe Motif — 瓊珠七線紋

Seven is among the most cosmologically significant numbers in Tibetan and Buddhist tradition — seven offerings on the altar, seven steps of the newborn Buddha, seven branches of devotional prayer. A seven-stripe Chung dzi (瓊珠七線紋) carries seven unbroken circuits of protection around its body, associated with continuous fortune, completeness of sacred number, and the accumulation of merit across lifetimes. On this bead, those seven circuits lean — and in leaning, they cover more of the bead's surface than a horizontal band would. There is nowhere on this body that the stripe does not reach.

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Motif: Seven stripe (七線紋); seven cream-white acid-etched bands; diagonal/angled stripe orientation — stripes lean and in some faces cross in X-pattern; rough granular texture at stripe edges (age-consistent ancient etching); no two faces show identical stripe composition
Length: 59.7mm
Diameter: 16.9mm — widest Chung dzi in collection
Form: Substantial elongated cylinder; minimal taper — holds diameter across majority of body length, tapering only near tips; heaviest Chung dzi in collection by mass; small centrally placed drill holes at both ends
Material: Natural semi-translucent warm brown agate with internal banding variation (chocolate-brown to honey-brown across different faces); cream-white acid-etched diagonal stripe bands; satin to semi-gloss surface; fine natural agate micro-pitting across ground zones
Age Estimate: 600–800 years
Condition: Fine natural agate texture and micro-pitting on ground zones (age-consistent); no chips; no cracks; no medicine digs
Bloodspots: None
Product ID: Ac-031322-7SChung
Collection: Ancient Chung Dzi | Ancient Dzi Beads

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You may also like:

• Ancient Seven Stripe Chung Dzi, Grey-Black Ground — Ac-101922-7SChung — Compact form, strictly grey-black-white, 500–700 yrs
• Ancient Seven Stripe Chung Dzi with Bloodspots — Ac-111720-7SOS — Flattened form, cinnabar bloodspots, 500–800 yrs
• Ancient Seven Stripe Chung Dzi SeS-1 — Ac-081020-7SChung — Ancient 1,000–1,500 yrs, acutely tapered, sandy-tan stripes
• Vintage Seven Stripe Chung Dzi — V-052222-7SChung — Vintage c.2000, warm chocolate-brown, cream-white stripes, 57.7mm

From the blog:

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

The biggest Chung dzi in the collection, and the stripes do not run straight.

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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