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gZi or dZi beads come from the central Asian region, and are usually found in an area ranging from Afghanistan, Iran, Tibet, India, Pakistan, Nepal and Burma.
They come in many shapes, sizes and forms, from tiny etched carnelians to huge multi eyed and striped dZi.

The photos in this collection are beads that I have personally collected in India and Nepal over the last 28 years.

When I first started collecting dZi, there were only original beads around 1000's of years old, or obvious modern copies and fakes not even made from agate, but usually bone or glass, so there was no mistaking the real from the copy. In recent times however the market has been inundated by so-called "middle period" or "antique" 100 or 200 year old dZi which the sellers are claiming to be genuine. This is simply not true. They are all modern copies mostly manufactured usually in China and Taiwan with certain techniques applied to them to "age" them, and as the market is flooded with these fakes I find it neccessary to clarify this. Ebay is particularly bad for the sale of fakes which the vendors sell as real. Some of these fakes are so good that even the Tibetans and "experts" themselves are frequently fooled. The way to spot fakes is with a good quality jeweller's loupe or eyeglass. How to detect fakes is outlined below.

HISTORY

There are also innaccuracies about the dating of the original "pure" dZi, the most common error is stating that it is 8th century. This error comes from a date found in the bead collector's bible "The History Of Beads" by Lois Sherr Dubin, where dZi is placed on the fold out "Time Map" in the 700's AD alongside the introduction of Buddhism in Tibet. However, if the reference numbers next to the beads are checked, the detail states that the actual dates are unknown. This is because the Tibetans have refused to allow archaelogical digs in Tibet, so no accurate dates can be established. The assumption is that as dZi is connected with Buddhism, then the stones arrived in Tibet at the same time Buddhism did.

In fact it is widely understood, certainly by the Tibetans, that dZi was part of the Bonpo tradition which preceded Buddhism in Tibet and goes back 4000 years or even more, and some of the oldest dZi is very likely to have come from this time. I have been told that the Bon Chiefs used to wear them on their ceremonial robes and when they died they were cremated in their ceremonial regalia, and the remains buried(though this cannot be proved). This would explain why gZi beads are often found in the ground and why so many are found burnt or broken, as the heat from the pyre would have been very likely to crack the beads.

This is not to be confused with chips in the beads, which could be accidental, but more likely to be deliberate. A recent conversation with a Tibetan from Lhasa revealed that beads were deliberately chipped either as medicinal offerings which is widely known, or to include as part of a burial offering on the death of the previous owner, which is not so well known. Therefore beads with small chips in them generally do not affect the value of the beads, and indeed can be seen as desirable.

There is another desirable feature to be found in dZi beads known as Blood Spots, or Martik to the Tibetans to whom these spots are extremely desirable.

POWER

As to questions about the power of the beads this is a very subjective matter, and I personally do not think that they have any intrinsic power bestowed by the Gods, like the Tibetans do, but having said that I always wear them when I am travelling. However, I do believe in the power of the mind, and quantum physics tells us that the universe only exists as we percieve it because of our beliefs, and those beliefs actually change how the atoms behave. Therefore the beads have the power we believe they have, and that power may be retained in the atoms of the stone. The older the bead and the more people who have held beliefs in the bead's ability to protect them, the more powerful the bead becomes. So it is a mixture of both natural science and belief, they work side by side. The new beads will have very little, if any, power at all, and none of it protective. The ones that have been deliberately faked to look old may have negative energy in them.

HOW WAS dZi MADE?

The great mystery of old dZi and etched carnelians is how they managed to get the markings on the surface without breaking or cracking the stone. The Chalcedony family, of which agate and carnelian are a part, are particularly suseptible to heat, which will crack or even shatter the stone. The technique of how to heat it without damaging it was only discovered in recent times by using sophisticated technology which entails heating the stone within a vacuum. As chalcedony is porous there is air and moisture within the stone which when heated expands and causes it to crack. In a vacuum the air has been removed so greatly reduces the chance of the stone cracking when heated. This technology was not around 100 years ago in remote Tibet, nor indeed was it around many of thousands of years ago, hence the mystery.

HOW TO SPOT CERTAIN FAKES

The most obvious sign of true ageing is the tiny circular cracks that appear on the surface of the bead to a greater or lesser degree depending of the density of the stone and its age. Beads that have been buried a long time will show this effect (see below), probably due to water getting in and then expanding and contracting due to seasonal changes in the climate.

Certain kinds of agate do not always show this ageing, agate that is very dense in its structure, and therefore the surface is less porous and less likely to be affected by this kind of age wear.

A lot of the modern copies also have these circular markings on them which is artifically created and the key to telling the difference between the modern and the old is to inspect the cracks with a 10 x loup or magnifying glass. On the original beads the circular cracks are rough and have a rounded edge to them where the crack goes into the stone, usually from being worn for millenia. The modern ones tend to have a sharp more squared edge to them where the stone's surface has been ground and polished after the ageing effect has been applied. Also the holes where the string goes are not worn or smooth and usually show a roughness.

Also a lot of the modern copies are too smoothly and perfectly formed, whereas old beads have natural dinks and chips that have been worn smooth over time to give an unfakeable effect.

HOW ORIGINAL PURE GZI/DZI WAS MADE

Many people have speculated as to how the original dZi was etched, as the modern technology of vacuums was not available at that time. One plausible theory was that the stones were heated at a extremely high altitude where the air is so thin that expansion is minimal. As Tibet is the highest country on the planet this gives some credence to this theory. This does not explain how the Indus valley culture etched carnelians though as this is not at altitude. However with the market flooded with huge quantities of replica and duplicate beads it seems very unlikely that all, if any, of these so called antique and middle period beads were made this way.

The process now of how the markings were etched into the pure dZi stones is fascinating. After the bead had been shaped and drilled, it was coated in Natron, also known as Hydrous Sodium Carbonate, and then baked which turned the stone white. The pattern of the eyes and lines were marked out with molten wax and the beads was then left to soak in a sugar water or other solution for approximately one month until the water had penetrated into the surface of the stone where it had not been covered in the wax. The stone was then heated again burning the sugar within the stone and turning it the familiar brown colour of most pure dZi. This method was somewhat hit and miss as the density of agate varied greatly, allowing more or less of the solution to penetrate, giving rise to variations in the depth of colour of the markings, a problem still happening today with the modern copies many of which have this mottled effect on them. Other chemicals were also used creating different colours, mostly this can be seen on the striped Chung dZi, which comes in a variety of different colours.

VALUE

One of the best ways to tell if you are being sold a fake is the price. Pure dZi with anything from one to nine eyes are worth from US$2,000 up to $15,000 or even more depending on the quality and condition, so any so-called pure eyed dZi you see on ebay for example, with a $10- $200 price tag is a modern fake, that the vendor may or may not know is real..... there are some cheats or idiots about!

Chung dZi, or lesser dZi, has such a huge variety of shapes, sizes and designs, from plain natural carnelian or striped agate, to huge, beads with many etched lines and patterns, that they would be impossible to value, although you can pick up old, unetched beads for as little as $10, or much less if you go to India, Nepal, or Tibet and you know where to look.
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This site is for informational purposes.