Imagine that almost two-thirds of the world’s population use these small ambassadors of culture as part of their religious practices.

Every culture, and every religion, believe that beads used for their particular form of meditation and prayer is uniquely their own. And, in many ways, they are quite right.

It may well be that the first to use beads of any kind for reciting prayers and counting incantations were the Hindus of India – or perhaps more specifically Buddhists, a sect  which developed from Hinduism sometime around the eigth century B.C.E.

Buddhists called their prayer beads “Mala”. Malas were made up of strands of 108 beads – these were used by Monks, everyone else’s prayer beads had strands of 30 to 40 beads only. The beads represent impurities which must overcome in order to reach the state of Nirvana. The beads themselves have a highly spiritual significance, as they were traditionally made from the seeds of the sacred Bodhi tree under which Budha is believed to have found enlightenment. The roughness of the beads is also important as it expresses the difficult road to Nirvana. The beads are not mobile as with later prayer beads, as they are knotted onto the base thread or rope.

Christians have their “rosaries”. The word rosary comes from the Latin rosarium which means rose garden. In Catholicism, a rose represent perfection, thus the rosary expresses the idea of a permanent garden of prayer – how fragrant a prayer! Usually rosaries contain 59 beads, 6 large and 53 small. They are arranged into five decades of ten small beads and one large bead each plus a pendant of one large and three small beads that terminates in a cross. The beads are usually threaded on to wire pins, which are linked together to form the complete rosary.

Muslims have a “subha” which means to exalt. Each subha usually has 99 beads, or fewer beads whose multiples are 99. The beads are used to recite the 99 names/attributes of God, or they are used to recite verses from the Qu’ran and prayers. The beads themselves can be made of many materials, from silver to semiprecious stones, glass even plastic, although the truly pious may have specific preferences. The prayer beads end with an elongated bead and a tassel of colorful threads or silver, and the beads usually move freely over the base thread.

Even ropes with knots were used to aid prayer, as well as simply using the fingers of one’s own hand. But, whether beads were made of seeds, wood, animal teeth, bone and ivory, perfumed wood such as sandal wood, olive-tree wood, or formed from rose petal pulp and spices, (I have even seen prayer beads made up human sculls of obviously deceased Buddhist practitioners), running the beads through your fingers, the sensation and feels of the beads, seems to have a great soothing feeling.

In the end, and each in their own way, everyone seems to come to the same conclusion: Aren’t beads just great?!

Enjoy!

Fadwa

Posted in: Words to Design By by Fadwa /