Ethnic jewelry of Ladakh

photo courtesy  Dietmar Temps

Ladakh is a dry, high-attitude region in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir and its people have a highly distinctive style of dress and very unique and interesting jewelry. The most recognizable ornament of Ladakhi women is a turquoise studded headdress called perak. There is a post on my blog dedicated exclusively to the perak (here ) and in my today's article I want to tell about other jewelry worn by Ladakhi women. Perak, being an impressive ornament on its own, additionally serves as a perfect display for numerous other hanging jewelry pieces that can be attached to it. Those who can afford it attach a separate piece of cloth to the left side of the perak decorated with up to ten vertical lines of coral ending in cowrie shells. To hold the perak in place silver chains are used. Below the chains hang flat silver plaques, usually with an endless knot motif - the auspicious and luck-bringing design, one of the Eight Auspicious Emblems of Buddhism - from which dangle small bells.

Jewelry for Hindu deities

Adorned image of Khadga Jogini Goddess of Sankhu, Nepal

In Hinduism images of deities are traditionally decorated with jewelry. According to Hindu belief all precious metals and gem stones are believed to be ritually pure and any pollution or contamination they may catch is removed simply by washing. So such adornments are suitable for deities decoration.
The purpose of adorning the deity image with jewelry is to impress the mind of the viewer to whom such a show of wealth is awe inspiring.

Ethnic jewelry of the republics of Central Asia

Turkmen girl wearing traditional guljaka ornament. Photo source

The republics of Central Asia region are Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan and Turkmenistan. The culture of this area has been influenced over the centuries by the many foreign travelers of the legendary Silk Route as well as by the invasive tribal groups of Mongolia and has much in common. Jewelry worn by women of the region, though with some regional differences and preferences, has also much in common.
Gold, silver, turquoise and rubies were mined in Central Asia since ancient times, which led to development of the craft of jewelry-making. The types of jewelry worn by a person varied according to the wearer's age - girls and young women wore more jewelry than older women; social status - the richer the family, the larger and more diverse was the collection of jewelry worn by the woman; and the purpose of decoration: ornaments for festive occasions were most luxurious.

Nepalese ethnic jewelry: head ornaments

This is my fourth post dedicated to Nepalese ethnic jewelry. The previous ones were about nose ornaments, earrings and necklaces. And today's article will be focused on head ornaments. Perhaps, the most impressive head jewelry pieces belong to the women of Newar community. On the photo above you can see a girl wearing one of the most beautiful head decorations called lunya swan. This eye-catching piece is made of numerous floral and foliate elements and the whole composition looks much like a bunch of flowers with insects hovering over them. A touch of colour  is added in the form of red or green glass beads. It is worn like a hat on the back of the head and may be as large as 30 cm in diameter but the average size is between 15 and 20 cm.

Dressed to welcome Spring

Spring has officially started in Nepal. Yesterday was the festival here called Basant Panchami which marks the beginning of spring ("basant" literally means "spring") and at the same time, it is a festival dedicated to Saraswati, Goddess of knowledge, wisdom, arts and music. Saraswati is supposed to celebrate her birthday and at the same time she opens the doors of the spring season. People, mostly women and schoolchildren, pay homage to the image of Saraswati and sprinkle the goddess' image with grains, flowers, fruits and sweets. Look at the beauties in traditional attires that I caught with my camera.

Gold jewelry of the Asante

King Otumfuo Osei Tutu, the 16th Asantehene, King of the Ashanti. Photo source

Seeing an Indian or Sumatran bride one may be overwhelmed by the amount of gold jewelry they are traditionally decorated with. But if one happens to see the king of Asante in all his ceremonial attire the impact will be even more impressive.
Asante (Ashanti) used to be one of the most successful and powerful kingdoms of West Africa. Natural gold resources brought wealth and influence to the country. Gold dust was the currency and gold objects were symbols of power and prestige. The wearing of gold jewels and gold decorated regalia was restricted to the king and major chiefs, and certain of their senior officials and servants. Gold-dust which had been accumulated during a successful career could only be turned into regalia with the king's permission. The amount, size and form of gold ornaments used by officials at each lever of the hierarchy was strictly determined.

Nepalese ethnic jewelry: necklaces

 Newari girl wearing tikma necklace

The most popular necklace in Nepal is pote. It is made of strands of glass beads and generally worn on a regular basis as a symbol of marriage. It fulfills the same function as a ring in the Western world. Sometimes the potes are thicker multi-strand necklaces, and sometimes they are long single strand necklaces. If a gold pendant is added to the pote then the necklace is called tilhari. The pendant consists of seven horizontally arranged gold or silver beads. Brahman or Chetri women wear small tilhari of two to five cm in length. In other areas of Nepal tilhari may be as large as 15 cm.

Nepalese ethnic jewelry: earrings

I've already written about the nose jewelry in Nepal and today I want to tell and show you Nepalese most unique, unusual or popular traditional earrings. It is amazing at how many places Nepalese women chose to pierce their ears: the lobule, concha, helix and even the tragus.

Human stuff jewelry and body decorations

Bracelet, 1830. Gold, hair work. The two oval miniatures set into the buckle depict William and Mary of England.

What materials have people not used throughout history to create jewelry and body decorations : stones, shells, wood, metal, seeds, animal horns, feathers, glass. But the most odd and shocking one is the human stuff: hair, teeth, bones. The least appalling (at least for me) of the three is hair. Jewelry made with hair is dated back to at least the 1600's, when hair bracelets were given as love tokens by both men and women. During this time one was likely to find the hair placed under glass and used as a background for initials or some other personal symbol to the wearer.

Coin jewelry from around the world

Girls from Nagaland, India. Photo courtesy Raj Kumar

Since first coins were minted they have been used by people as elements in jewelry. Their round form and size range made them very suited to use in ornaments. For those who could afford it, gold coins were used, and others had to be satisfied with silver. Obviously, coins are a symbol of wealth and showing them off in the form of jewelry contribute to the wearer's prestige. Besides in many countries coins were and are believed to possess mystic, amuletic powers. It is partly because of attitudes towards the metals of which they are made, and in some cases because of the images stamped upon them.

Bridal jewelry around the world

photo courtesy Jon Wason

What are the most traditional bridal jewelries in Europe and America? A tiara, a pearl necklace, maybe a bracelet, but of course, the most important of all, a wedding ring, a symbol of eternity, union and completeness as well as an emblem of strength and protection. But it is not so everywhere. In other countries there are other important bridal jewelries that every bride is supposed to wear on her big day to ensure the success of her marriage.

Ethnic jewelry of Central Tibet

Yesterday I got an e-mail with attached photos of this magnificent doll. The owner of the doll asked me whether I can help to identify the doll's costume. She was especially interested in the headdress because she was quite at a loss about how it should be put on the head.
I was very glad to help and decided to write an article too. The doll no doubt impersonates a Tibetan noble woman from Lhasa and her costume and adornments are very accurate and detailed.

Tribal jewelry of Orissa

photo courtesy Rita Willaert

I continue to tell you about ethnic jewelry of different states of India. Today's post will be about tribal jewelry of Orissa. Of all the states of India, Orissa has the largest number of tribes, as many as 62. Each of these tribal groups has its own distinctive adornments but I will tell about the most typical and interesting ones. The Bondo tribe is the most spectacular tribe of its kind in all India living in the wild hills in the south of Orissa. Bondo means "the naked ones", a name given them by the Indians of the plains. According to legend, Bondo women were condemned and a commandment forbids them either to grow their hair or to wear any clothing apart from a home-woven loincloth.

Tribal jewelry of Himachal Pradesh

photo source

Today I want to write about tribal jewelry of another region of India, Himachal Pradesh. This area is inhabited by the Buddhist of Lahul and Spiti, the Hindu Gujjar and Bakarwal nomads, and the Hindus of Kullu and Chamba. Designs of many ornaments here is of Indian origin mingled with those of Tibet. Many jewelry motifs are inspired by nature: a flower of lotus, leaves of a pipal tree, a tiger's head.
One of the most popular ornament in Himachal Pradesh is a head ornament. The most common one is the bindi which has a central pendant hanging from the parting of the hair and silver chains extending on both sides upto the ear. A set of attractive items for the forehead is called shringar-patti. It includes a fringe worn on either side of the face, consisting of a star or geometrical shaped pieces linking to each other. Hung from it are pipal leaves or stars or drops. There are also moon or crescent shaped plaques sometimes enameled, suspended on to the middle forehead.

Traditional jewelry of the Tharu women of Nepal

I took picture of this lovely girl during one of the Tharu festivals in Kathmandu. Needless to say I was mesmerized by the jewelry she was wearing. I wanted to find out more about traditional jewelry of the Tharu and did some research.
The Tharu live in parts of the Nepalese wet lowlands along the Indian border. Before the drainage of these areas in the twentieth century, the malaria-resistant Tharus lived isolated along the malaria infested jungles and developed their own distinct culture and religion. They usually settle in small villages and make a living from agriculture.
The main characteristic of  the Tharu jewelry is that it is made of silver or silver substitutes and that is worn in great quantity though nowadays it is much less then what was worn in the past.

Tibetan jewelry: a bit of history

Jewelry has never been worn by Tibetans just in order to beautify themselves. Jewelry in Tibet could serve as amulets, as kind of the bank, which is always with you, or as an indicator of social status.
Most jewelry made from precious metals – silver or gold – was considered auspicious and luck bringing in Tibet. In Southern Tibet it was considered bad luck for a woman to go without her hair ornaments. Up until 1950s this led to women sleeping in their enormous headdresses.

Tribal jewelry and adornments of Arunachal Pradesh

Apatani woman

There are around twenty major tribes and many sub tribes in Arunachal Pradesh, India, and so it is no wonder that there is a big variety of tribal jewelries in this region. Anyway, you can notice some similar elements: practically in all tribes women wear numerous necklaces, bangles and belts. Headbands too are rather common.
Multicoloured strings of glass or stone beads are most favouvered but in southeast Arunachal Pradesh beads of agate stone, brass, and silver are also used. Such necklaces adorn the necks not only of women but sometimes of men as well. Every bead has its own value according to its colour and lustre. Usually they are worn in numerous quantity.

Beads in the ethnic jewelry of Africa

Samburu woman. Photo credit Sankara Subramanian

Beadwork is the most popular form of adornment among many Eastern and Southern African people. In earlier times beads were made from ostrich-eggshell, wood or bone but in the 19th century coloured beads from Europe came to the continent and tens of thousands of them began to be used to make amazing ornaments. These ornaments started to play an important role in social life of tribal people of Africa.

Tribal jewelry of Rajasthan

photo credit  Evgeni Zotov

I love ethnic jewelry. I like its simplicity and at the same time complexity, its uniqueness and beauty. I've already posted about Tibetan and Nepalese ethnic jewelry and today's post is about tribal jewelry of Rajasthan, India.
Tribal women of Rajasthan like to adorn themselves with lots of silver jewelry. Most of those, however, serve not only as decorations but have a special meaning: protective or signalling about marital status.
Protective role is played by metal plaque amulets bearing an image of a Hindu deity usually accompanied by its animal vehicle. Instead of one deity there may be as well a group of them or even only the symbol of deity, for example, footprints of Vishnu. Such amulets are called madaliya in Rajasthan. They may be of different shape: rectangular, square, round, in the form of yoni or temple-shaped.

Ethnic jewelry of the Tibeto-Nepalese

Turquoise, coral and amber beads head ornament

Nepal is a country of mixed population. Along its northern border in high alpine valleys like Mustang, Dolpo, Langtang, Solu-Khumbu and others live many groups of Tibetan origin. By the Nepalese they are called Bhote which means Tibetan. Besides, thousands of Tibetans migrated to Nepal following Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1959.
The jewelry of Tibeto-Nepalese stands out due to its colourful materials. Most popular are bead necklaces strung from blue turquoise, red coral, yellow amber beads in all sizes and shapes. Strands in combination of the stones are common. In many cases bead necklaces serve as the support for an amulet container. The most valued beads are dzi and blood-coloured corals. Tibetans like to wear a dzi bead flanked by a pair of coral beads.