Antique Tibetan Dzi Bead featuring the Heaven & Earth Motif — (At-0426-HE)

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

The colour stops you first.

Most dzi work in some version of dark brown and cream. This bead is different, and you can see it from across a room. The ground is jet-black — deep, even and glossy like polished lacquer — and the motif is not cream or white but a rich golden amber, somewhere between honey and old gold.

That amber is the natural colour of this agate, revealed by the maker and softened by time. Jet-black with golden amber is one of the most striking combinations in the dzi tradition, and it appears on relatively few surviving antique beads.

The motif is Heaven and Earth. On Face A the Heaven Gate appears as a large oval ring — the opening to the sky — flanked by vertical bracket bars. On Face B the Earth Gate answers with its rectangular bracket form, flat across the top and concave below: the bounded field that receives what descends from above. Amber stripe rings wrap the full circumference, so the design reads from every angle.

The bead measures 46.8mm × 11.5mm, a slender, elegant torpedo with a long taper and high polish throughout. Both drill holes are small, centred and intact (Images 3 and 4), set in warm brown rounded tips. No cracks, no repairs.

For comparison, the Antique Double Heaven and Earth Gate Dzi (At-0426-DHE) carries a doubled version of the motif on warm brown agate — the same symbolic language in a very different stone.

The Heaven and Earth Motif

The Heaven and Earth motif (天地天珠) carries the same meaning across Tibetan and Chinese traditions: the balance of yin and yang, of heavenly clarity and earthly grounding. It is especially associated with removing obstacles in business — clearing the path between intention and outcome.

Specifications

• Motif: Heaven Gate and Earth Gate (天門地門)
• Length: 46.8mm
• Diameter: 11.5mm
• Form: Elongated torpedo
• Material: Natural agate; jet-black ground with golden amber motif; warm brown tips
• Age: Antique, estimated 200–400 years
• Condition: Excellent; no cracks; high-gloss surface; both drill holes intact
• Bloodspots: None
• Product ID: At-0426-HE
• Collection: Antique Dzi Beads

You May Also Like

• Antique Double Heaven and Earth Gate Dzi (At-0426-DHE)
• Antique Heaven and Earth Gate Dzi with Bloodspots (At-0426-HGEG)
• Antique Four Eye and Earth Gate Dzi (At-061926-4EEG)
• Antique Four Eye Dzi, Amber on Dark Brown (At-012325-4E)

Further Reading

• Dzi Bead Motifs and Their Meanings
• Tibetan Dzi Beads for Luck and Fortune

Jet-black and golden amber — heaven above, earth below, and a clear path between.