Navaratna jewelry

In Nepal, as well as in India, you can often see women (and sometimes men) wearing different multi-stoned pieces of jewelry: pendants, rings, bangles. If you count the presented gems the number will be nine. And those are not just random choice of stones and not random arrangement of them. This type of jewelry is called navaratna and it has a special meaning and purpose. The nine gems represent sun, moon, five planets and the ascending and descending phases of the moon's cycle (together loosely referred to as nine planets).

Fishy jewelry

I am a big cat lover and so no wonder I have many cat theme things at home including adornments. But browsing recently through my collection of jewelry I was surprised to notice that I have quite enough pieces of fish ornaments as well: two pairs of earrings and three pendants. Seems that this design started to attract me without even my realization. Who could guess that a fish, not the most attractive in its appearance creature, would become a popular theme for jewelry designs.

Animal teeth and claws jewelry

retouched photo by J. J. Williams wikipedia

This beautiful lady is Queen Emma of Hawaii. And on this photo she's wearing a tiger's claws necklace. Such kind of adornments has been worn for centuries because teeth and claws of animals have been believed to possess strong amuletic powers. Though it should be noticed that not of any animal, say a mouse or a rabbit, but only of scary wild beasts like tiger, bear, leopard, wolf. Such amulets appear in the adornment of many cultures.

Mounted in gold or silver, a bear's tooth or a tiger's claw is believed to magically increase the physical strength of the wearer. In some countries it is said that a bear-claw amulet will also help a woman during childbirth. In other countries, a wolf's tooth attached to a baby's body will protect the child from fear and from toothache. In China (and from there it spread to casino cities) a tiger's claw or tooth mounted in gold is said to bring luck to gamblers. In China the tiger is referred to as "the gambler's god".

Red coral, the multi-purposed protector

When I was on holidays in Sri Lanka I bought this coral roses set, a bracelet and a ring. Though coral is rather popular in Nepal, especially among Tibeto-Nepalese, it is not easy to find something so delicately carved. It is believed here that the person who wears coral will have success in life. Red coral is the most valuable, it is auspicious in Tibetan culture. It is a sacred colour, one of the colours of the five Buddhas and the colour of the monk's garments. It is believed to have protective qualities.
Good coral should be of oxblood colour and flawless. For beads size also matters, the bigger - the better, some corals reach almost golf ball size. In West Nepal the corals worn by many different ethnic groups come in shades of pink or salmon and are sometimes almost white.

Nepalese and Tibetan amulets

Almost every man, woman and child in Tibet, Nepal and the Himalayan area of India carries a variety of charms and amulets on the body. An amulet is typically a small item or items of magic potency attached to the body. The materials , shapes, decoration for amulets are varied, as are the contents. The protective items are wrapped into cloth or placed into a metal container, a tube or a box. Amulet box in Tibet has the name gau and in Nepal - jantar. It is generally suspended from the neck as a central pendant on a string of beads and is made of copper, silver or gold with floral or iconographic designs. One of the sides or the back is left open, so that a protective item may be inserted. Jantar and gau sizes vary widely. Small containers between 2 and 4 sm per side are used as children’s amulets, while those for statues or deities may be as large as 15 sm per side or in diameter and 3 sm deep.