S925 Silver South Red Agate Yellow Jambhala Pendant

In thangka painting Yellow Jambhala is golden all over; this one is red, and the red comes from South Red agate. He sits first among the five Jambhalas of the five families, a wish-granting jewel in his right hand and a jewel-spitting mongoose in his left, the animal disgorging mani beads from its mouth. He sits in half lotus with his right foot on a conch shell. Those details are fixed in thangka, and when the figure is made in three dimensions you keep as many as the piece allows — the mongoose and the jewel matter most.

The ground colour here is South Red agate. The red is not flat: hold it to a light and there are dense cinnabar dots inside, and the finer and more even they are, the better the material. This one runs to persimmon red rather than a dark brick red. South Red has a habit of improving with wear — the dry surface feel goes away — and that is part of why people prefer it to ordinary agate. Some compare it with red coral, but the two reds are not the same thing; South Red is heavier, deeper. Fractures are its old problem, and the trade says there is no South Red without cracks. A fine crack on the back is nothing; a crack on the face is something to think about.

The figure is pressed into the stone in low relief. Low relief is flattered by a red ground: the raised passages catch light, the recessed ones fall dark, and the features outline themselves. The face is the shallowest part, with only the brows, eye sockets and mouth cut deep, so the expression does not turn fierce; the mongoose in the hand is cut deeper, its tail coiled over the wrist, and reads clearly.

The back is flat and uncarved. A plaque like this is worn with its back against the chest, and carving there would only dig in. The hole is drilled at the top of the head; thread the cord from back to front and the pendant will naturally face outward. Dark brown or black cord is the safe pairing — red with black is the steadiest combination. A silver chain also works, but its cold white presses the red down deeper; it depends which tone you want. There is a little material left on either side of the hole, so the cord does not rub through the rim.

South Red dislikes heat and dislikes dryness. Left beside a radiator through the winter it will develop fine lines — a weakness of agate generally. Keep it in a pouch when it is off, and you can put a small piece of damp cotton in the pouch, but not touching the stone. If the silver is a bezel, keep the polishing cloth off the stone: the compound in the cloth works into the micropores of South Red and leaves a white bloom that is hard to wash out.