Mixed Materials Zhakila Heart Mantra Spacer Cord Bracelet

Zakiram's cult sits on the northern edge of Lhasa. The temple is small, the smoke of juniper offerings never clears from the doorway, and most people arriving carry a bottle of liquor, because what is offered to her there is drink rather than flowers. Her following on the mainland is a recent thing, and the accounts of where she came from do not agree; one says she was brought in from the interior, others say something else, and asking locally will not settle it. The bracelet takes her heart mantra, not her image. Offering liquor is rare elsewhere, and first-time visitors ask why, and the question has no fixed answer.

The mantra is cut into the spacer bead, the characters small and set in a ring, so you have to bring it close to read. They are cast, at an even depth, never high on one side and low on the other. The rule for a mantra is no wrong character and no broken stroke: the form may be simplified, the strokes may not be dropped. Turn the bead in your hand when you buy and look for a character missing or repeated, since this is where the work shows and also where it is easiest to fake. Moulds blunt with use, and later batches come out shallower than the first.

A spacer bead separates the main beads, and it also breaks the cord into sections. A single spacer is one piece strung in the middle, holding the beads on either side apart so they do not knock. A spacer bracelet is braided as a whole, the spacers worked in at intervals, so it looks finished the moment it goes on. Braiding takes more labour than stringing: the knots have to disappear into the holes of the spacers, and the ends are singed and pressed flat so they do not scratch the wrist. The hole has to match the cord; too thin and the bead slides about, too thick and it will not pass.

Mixed materials bring the trouble of shrinkage. Cord slackens, wood swells, metal does not move at all, and with several materials on one strand the change shows within a month or two: the cord gives, the beads turn on it, and the spacers drift out of place. Run the braid through your hands when you choose and check how tight the knots are. Once a braid has gone slack it cannot be taken in by hand, only redone. Do not bathe in it. Cord holds water, dries slowly, and after a while it smells. Humidity in the south is heavier than in the north, and the same bracelet can lose half a year of life between the two.

This kind of bracelet suits any gender as a gift; what matters is explaining the subject. In Lhasa Zakiram is asked for wealth and for undertakings to go smoothly, and the liquor is local custom, not a joke. Do not call it consecrated, and do not make a wish on someone else's behalf. On a slim wrist, keep the band narrow, because a wide one presses. With large beads, the spacers should be smaller, or the bracelet goes fat and thin by turns and looks uneven. The cord colour is yours to pick: dark hides dirt, pale looks clean, and each has its own nuisance.