Antique Green Tara Dzi, 41.4mm × 12.0mm, dark chocolate-brown, cinnabar bloodspots (At-043026-GT)

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

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The Tara figure on this bead does not resolve into a face or body — it resolves into a gesture, and that gesture is different on every face you turn toward you.

This is the only Green Tara dzi in the collection, and it carries a motif unlike anything else in the range. Where eye-count beads present geometric repetition and wave beads present bilateral symmetry, the Green Tara dzi presents figural abstraction — a flowing, organic white line composition that reads differently depending on which face is forward and which angle you approach from. Face A shows a large sweeping C-curve with a hooked curl at one end and a separate lower rounded form beneath it — together suggesting a seated or reclining figure in the Tibetan thangka tradition. Face B presents a related but distinct arrangement: a broad crescent sweep with a smaller secondary scroll curl below, the two elements in dialogue rather than mirroring. Neither face reproduces the other. The Tara figure has two aspects, and this bead shows both.

The connector faces complete the composition with double-wave lines — warm cream undulating bands running horizontally across a dark chocolate-brown field. Image 3 shows a clean, paired wave arrangement, upper and lower, separated by a dark centre band. Image 5 shows a more organic variant: two asymmetric cloud-like white forms, one upper and one lower, separated by the same dark band — reading almost as two facing comma shapes rather than a simple wave. This organic variation in the connector faces is consistent with hand-etching at this age and adds to the bead's character.

The body is a well-proportioned elongated barrel at 41.4mm length and 12.0mm diameter, with a smooth glossy surface indicating consistent handling and good preservation over its 200+ year life. The ground colour throughout is a confirmed deep dark chocolate-brown — warm in tone, not cool, not pitch-black. The motif lines are warm cream rather than bright white, and this distinction matters: the cream already carries a visible peach-ochre warmth that is partly the agate's own colour and partly the diffuse staining of the cinnabar distributed throughout the white zones. End caps are a warm medium brown, glossy, slightly lighter than the body — cleanly finished with a small centred drill hole visible in Images 6 and 7.

The bloodspot evidence is documented in Images 8 and 9. Image 8 shows the cream motif zone at high magnification: the entire cream field is populated with discrete rust-orange to burnt-orange cinnabar (硃砂/zhūshā) micro-dots, individually visible, varying slightly between fine pin-point and marginally larger — scattered evenly across the surface with no clustering or boundary pooling. Image 9 isolates the dark inner scroll element of the Tara figure: the surrounding cream zone carries the same dense rust-orange dot field right up to the edge of the dark figural element, demonstrating that the cinnabar distribution is pervasive and not confined to any single zone. Cinnabar is mercuric sulfide (HgS), a naturally occurring mineral inclusion that forms within agate over geological time. Its presence at this density and distribution across the cream zones is a significant physical authentication marker for antique dzi of this age and origin.

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The Green Tara (度母/Dù Mǔ; དོལ་མ།) Motif

Green Tara — known in Tibetan as Dölma (དོལ་མ།) and in Chinese as Dù Mǔ (度母) — is one of the most beloved and widely venerated figures in Tibetan Buddhist practice. She is the female bodhisattva of compassionate action, depicted in thangka art as seated in a posture of royal ease with one leg extended, ready to rise and act in response to suffering. Her green form represents active compassion — she does not wait to be called but moves toward those in need. Among the Twenty-One Taras of Tibetan tradition, Green Tara is considered the root form from whom all other Taras emanate. A dzi bead carrying her motif is among the rarest and most spiritually significant in the Tibetan collecting tradition — worn for protection, swift assistance in times of difficulty, and the cultivation of fearlessness.

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Spec Block

Motif: Green Tara (度母/Dù Mǔ; དོལ་མ།); flowing figural abstraction on two primary faces; double-wave connector faces Length: 41.4mm Diameter: 12.0mm Form: Elongated barrel, smooth glossy surface Material: Deep dark chocolate-brown agate ground; warm cream motif lines; warm medium brown end caps Age Estimate: 200+ years Condition: No cracks; natural weathering and surface patina consistent with age; glossy surface intact; no medicine digs Bloodspots: Yes — pervasive rust-orange to burnt-orange cinnabar (硃砂/zhūshā) micro-dot constellation distributed evenly across cream zones; discrete individual dots varying from fine pin-point to marginally larger; macro-confirmed in Images 8 and 9; no boundary pooling Product ID: At-043026-GT Collection: Antique Dzi Collection | Bloodspot Dzi Collection

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Blog Links

• What Are Dzi Beads? History, Meaning & Authentication
• Green Tara: The Swift Compassionate Protector in Tibetan Buddhism

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The only Green Tara in the collection — a figural motif, a pervasive cinnabar field, and 200+ years of accumulated presence in a single 41.4mm bead.

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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