S925 Silver Green Tara Yellow Jambhala Padmasambhava Pendant

Green Tara is an emanation of Tara, green in body, the right hand in the gesture of granting wishes and the left holding a blue utpala lotus whose stem passes between her fingers and opens at the shoulder. Yellow Jambhala is one of the five Jambhalas, dzambhala in Tibetan, yellow in body, holding a wish-fulfilling jewel in the right hand and a mongoose in the crook of the left arm, the mongoose disgorging jewels. Padmasambhava is the figure from Uddiyana whom the Nyingma school takes as its founder and who brought tantric teaching into Tibet. Each of the three has a separate role. Selling them as one series is a merchant's arrangement, and buyers take whichever one is theirs.

Green Tara and Padmasambhava are made as round single pendants, the face a complete circle with a clean edge and no beaded border, held by the silhouette of the figure alone. Yellow Jambhala is a different shape: a solid build, a round belly, a steady seated posture, and the face widened to follow. Seen together, the round pieces look refined and the Jambhala has weight in the hand, so a buyer can tell at a glance which is their line. If a round piece had a ring of beads added at the edge, it would no longer be this shape at all.

The difficulty with figures is small scale. All three carry a halo or a lotus seat, and with that many elements a small size muddles easily. Look at the hands first. Green Tara's hands are at the chest and the knuckles must separate; Jambhala's hand holds the mongoose, and the animal's tail must be recognisable; Padmasambhava holds a vajra in one hand and a skull cup in the other, and the two implements mustn't merge into one shape. If the hands are right, a slightly weaker face can pass. If the hands blur, the whole piece is a lump of relief.

Wealth-deity subjects are popular with people in business, for the good saying as much as anything else. Bare silver holds them in check. The gold-coloured figure on a red cord goes vulgar easily, while silver's cool tone takes the heat out of the subject, so it doesn't look like showing off. Green Tara is the quieter one: a plain chain, length to the chest. Padmasambhava suits older wearers, and when younger people wear him it is usually a piece that came from an elder at home. Don't hang two of them on one strand; crowded subjects and neither one shows.

Don't dig at the black in the recesses. In the folds of robes and the gaps of lotus petals, oxidation settles in and the lines read more clearly; dig it out and you leave a raw gouge that looks worse than the black did. A silver plaque dislikes falls, and the nose tip and fingers of a figure are the most fragile points, because those are what lands first. Store it flat rather than hanging on a hook, where it swings against whatever is beside it. Choose a finer chain: the plaque isn't heavy, and a thick chain overpowers the face rather than supporting it.