White Copper Eight Auspicious Symbols Compass Pendant

The eight treasures are not the eight immortals. Those are two entirely separate systems, and they get confused constantly. The eight immortals are Daoist figures, Tieguai Li, Lü Dongbin and the rest of the group. The eight auspicious symbols are Buddhist objects: the parasol, the golden fish, the treasure vase, the lotus, the right-turning conch, the endless knot, the victory banner and the dharma wheel. These eight turn up almost everywhere in Tibet, from monastery murals to the lintels of ordinary houses, drawn elaborately or very simply, and the order stays more or less fixed.

The word compass here borrows the form of a feng shui luopan. A real luopan has a pool at the centre holding a magnetic needle, with rings cut around it for the bagua, the twenty-four mountains and the twenty-eight mansions, anywhere from a few rings to several dozen. Setting the eight treasures on a disc with no needle and only a centre point is not, strictly speaking, a luopan at all. Eight-treasure disc would be more accurate. Whoever named it was after the shape of the disc rather than the instrument.

The eight objects have different shapes, and fitting them evenly into one ring means settling a common size first. The parasol is long, the wheel round, the knot square. Their circumcircles differ, so placed side by side some will push against the rim while others shrink inside it. On a good disc the outer edge of all eight touches the same circle, and the negative space left between them is even. Turn the disc slowly and check whether the eight compartments are the same width. That tells you more about the hand than any single motif does.

The conch deserves a note of its own. Conches spiral left or right, and Buddhism uses the right-turning one, with the spiral closing clockwise as it rises. Plenty of reproductions have this reversed. Look at the direction the mouth opens, then at the run of the spiral, and both have to agree before it counts as right-turning. The endless knot needs checking too. The centre is a cross, the four sides are symmetrical, and the ends are tucked inside. Ends left showing mean the piece was never finished.

The face of a white copper disc is flat, and polished it behaves like a mirror, so the eight outlines are separated by light and shade rather than by colour. This is not a piece that wants heavy antiquing. Too much dark and the eight run together into one mass. On a chain the disc rotates, and as you walk the eight take turns facing outward. Some people enjoy that and some find it restless, which is a matter of temperament. A plain face holds fingerprints, so press it with a lens cloth when you take it off.