S925 Silver Yellow Jambhala Seed Syllable Earrings

A seed syllable is one of the devices of esoteric Buddhism: the name of a figure, its mantra, its qualities, all gathered into a single syllable and written as a single character. That character is the seed of that figure, and it appears all over mandalas, ritual implements and thangkas. The script is usually Siddham or Ranjana, the strokes curling into one another, so that at a distance it looks like ornament and only up close resolves into a character.

Yellow Jambhala is the chief of the five Jambhalas, known in Tibetan as Dzambhala, yellow in body, the right hand holding a wish-fulfilling jewel and the left cradling a mongoose that disgorges jewels. The five are divided by colour — yellow, white, red, green, black — and each has its own domain. Yellow holds the centre and is the one most often taken out and used as a subject by itself. Images of him are common at the entrances of Tibetan monasteries, not in the main hall but in the row of protectors. The yellow one keeps the centre, and also the provisions of those who practise, which is a layer not many people know about.

A stud gives very little area. There is no room for the whole figure and exactly enough for one seed syllable. The cutting is incised and the lines are fine, and the turns have to be kept; break a stroke and the character falls apart. After antiquing the recesses go black, a black character on a white ground, and at a distance it reads like a small seal. The white of silver is cool, and against this ink line it wears better than a brightly polished surface would. The cut is shallow, out of reach of daily wiping, which is what lets the dark stay in it.

Studs are worn every day, against the ear for a dozen hours at a stretch. The post has to be hard enough. Too soft and it bends within two wearings, and bending it straight again loosens the joint. Do not wear them in a fresh piercing: silver is a gentle metal, but a new wound does not want abrasion. Choose silver or silicone backs; a hard metal back pressed against the ear while you sleep will swell the lobe. Take them out to sleep. A night's pressure deforms the post, and in the morning it will not go back through.

One thing should be said plainly about the seed syllable: it is a marker, not a switch. Worn at the ear it means keeping something in mind, and the wearer knowing which figure they carry is enough. It should not be told as a promise that wearing it will produce some result; talk of that kind does not survive a question, and it does the craft no credit either. Silver oxidises, and once the characters have darkened they read more clearly than when new, which is simply the temper of the metal. Kept in a bag when not worn, it ages more slowly than it would on the ear every day.