Copper Mahakala Micro-paved Three-hole Bead Set

Mahakala is a transliteration of the Sanskrit name. In Tibetan Buddhism he is a protector and is also honoured as a wealth deity, and there are six-armed, four-armed and two-armed forms. The six-armed one is the most common: a curved knife in one hand, a skull cup in another, a mala and a drum in the middle pair, a bow and arrow in the last two. With so many implements on a small piece, the maker can keep only a few and let the rest merge into the outline. The knife is curved, the cup is a bowl; set left and right, at small scale they become two dark dots.

Scholarship generally traces this figure back to the Shaiva current in Hinduism; Buddhism absorbed him as a protector, and he came into Tibet with the tantras. It is a long road, and the imagery has been layered along the way, so viewers in Han regions often assume he is native to Tibet. Explaining the history is more interesting than the assumption. There is no need to go into it in detail; knowing that he did not always look like this is enough. His images are rare in Han temples, and few people recognise him.

Pavé sets small stones along the crown, the necklaces and the armlets. The stones are small and so are the settings, and the pressure on each bead has to be even: too hard and the stone cracks, too light and it sits loose. Seen from the front, a pavé piece is a scatter of points of light; only at an angle do you see the metal backing. One missing stone is the most conspicuous thing on it, because everything around is full, and the eye goes straight there. The claws of each setting should be rounded into arcs; sharp ones catch knitwear and scratch a face.

The three-hole set is made for a strand you already have. Main beads of bodhi or of wood both work; the dark red of the copper steadies against dark wood and does not fight white bodhi. The size of a set is fixed: if your main beads are larger than it, the three-hole bead looks undersized, and if smaller, the bead juts out. Use calipers on the bead diameter rather than trusting your eye. The spacer disc in the set counts as one of the pieces, so do not lose it; replacing it is a nuisance.

Do not soak a piece with set stones. Water gets into the settings and dampens the backing and the glue together, and the stones fog over as if a film had settled on them. If you sweat, wipe the piece after wearing, pressing with a soft cloth rather than rubbing back and forth. When it is off, keep it in its own small bag, apart from other metal, because pavé claws bend easily and a bent claw catches on clothing. The dark of the copper is what sets off the brightness of the stones, and that is where this kind of piece looks best.