Tibetan treasures series: Pearls (མུ་ཏིག)

Tibetan treasures series: Pearls (མུ་ཏིག)

"Tibetan Women's Headdress: Exquisite Pearl Crown"
(Translation: The Collection of the Tibet Museum)
In the late 18th century, stored in the Tibet Museum.
The pearl crown is usually worn together with the female headdress "bazhu" (སྤ་ཕྲུག). This headdress is a symbol of a woman's noble bloodline and distinguished lineage.

"Blue Lapis Lazuli Tibetan Medicine Thangka: Properties and Functions of Medicinal Materials"
In the first half of the 20th century, the Zang Kang Tibetan Medicine Bureau in Lhasa
Contains five out of the six precious medicines: Pearl

Red pearl - white pearl (like the living pearl)
Dark blue pearl - dark green pearl (both are leaf pearls)
And snake red pearl, from the brain of a snake

སངས་རྒྱས་བྱང་སེམས་ཉ་རུ་སྤྲུལ་པ་ཡི།

ཁོག་པའི་ནང་ནས་མུ་ཏིག་དམར་པོ་འབྱུང།

དེ་ལ་རཀྟ་མུ་ཏིག་ཅེས་སུ་གྲགས།

ཝ་ལུ་མུ་ཏིག་ག་ཛ་མུ་ཏིག་དང་།

སི་ཀ་མུ་ཏིག་རམ་པ་མུ་ཏིག་དང་།

སརྦ་མུ་ཏིག་སྨད་ཀྱི་མུ་ཏིག་དང་།

རྨ་ལུ་མུ་ཏིག་བཅས་ཏེ་རིགས་བདུན་ནི།

གླང་ཆེན་སྦྲུལ་གྱི་ཀླད་པ་ལས་བྱུང་དང་།

རྒྱ་གར་ལྷོ་ཕྱོགས་ཤིང་གི་འདབ་མ་ལ།

ལྷ་ཡི་ཆར་རྒྱུན་ཕབས་ལས་བྱུང་བའམ།

ཡང་ན་ཆར་པ་ཉ་ཡི་བཏུང་ལས་བྱུང་།

ཁ་དོག་སྣ་ཚོགས་མུ་ཏིག་རབ་ཡིན་ནོ།

In a past life, a Bodhisattva transformed into a fish, and within the fish's belly, red pearls were formed.

It is said that there are seven types of pearls: Rugged Blood Pearls, Snake Pearls, Elephant Pearls, Fish Pearls, Grass Pearls, True Pearls, and Lower Pearls.

These pearls are believed to have originated from the brains of elephants and snakes, as well as from the leaves of trees in India, where they are formed by divine rain. They are also said to be produced when fish consume rainwater. Pearls of various colors are considered to be of superior quality.

 From "The Essential Collection of Precious Discernment Methods"（རིན་པོ་ཆེ་བརྟག་ཐབས་མདོར་བསྡུས་གསལ་བ）
By Longdopa Zhelertak Modorbu Shalu
(ཀློང་རྡོལ་བླ་མ；1719-1794)

"Chenrezig's Pure Land"
Detail: The white pearl necklace held by the bodhisattva's right hand
Mid-19th century, Rubens Museum collection
Born into a wealthy merchant family, the South Asian scholar Buddhoguptanath (बुद्धगुप्तनाथ；1514-1610) once stayed in Tibet for several months and imparted teachings to the Sakya scholar Tārānātha (ཏཱ་ར་ནཱ་ཐ；1575-1634). During this time, his affluent mentor gifted him two large white pearls, considering pearls to be rare and precious treasures in Tibet. This statement by Buddhoguptanath is often seen as a sign of his lack of understanding of the reality in Tibet. Pearls do hold a special sacred significance in Tibetan culture, but during the era in which Buddhoguptanath lived, pearls were already common among the Tibetan people. Moreover, historical evidence from both above and below ground indicates that pearls have a long and rich history in Tibet.

Mollusks, in order to defend against invading organisms, envelop intruders in a substance containing calcium carbonate, which ultimately solidifies into pearls- objects cherished by European and Asian royalty alike. Decorative items made from shells (which are important in Tibetan religious beliefs) and pearls (containing mother-of-pearl) have been found in various archaeological sites dating back 2,700 to 2,000 years, such as the Kurjong site in Ali. According to records from ancient texts, numerous pearls were found in the tomb of Songtsen Gampo, with various types of pearls used as offerings in the burial chamber. Large pearls (（མུ་ཏིག་ཆེན་པོ་）) and eye pearls (མིག་ཡོད་མ་) were core offerings stored in the royal treasury.
"Half-length Portrait of Empress Xu, Second Empress of Emperor Yingzong of the Ming Dynasty"
From the collection "Portraits of Emperors and Empresses throughout History"
Currently housed in the National Palace Museum in Taipei
"Blue Lapis Lazuli Tibetan Medicine Thangka: Properties and Functions of Medicines"
In the first half of the 20th century, Lhasa Menzikang Tibetan Medicine Institute
Content: Remaining genuine pearls and three miscellaneous pearls
Pearls from clam shells (known as mouse head pearls in Tibetan).
Assorted pearl items: Duoka pearls (also known as Anduo pearls).
Assorted pearl items 2 and 3: Han region pearls and small pearls.
(The assorted items are depicted around the clam pearls.)

"Eighty-four Great Achievements in a Series of Images: Samudra/ས་མུ་དྲ་"
19th century, from the Rubin Museum
Achiever Samudra was originally a pearl diver.

In Tibetan language, pearls are called Mutig (མུ་ཏིག or མུ་སྟི་ཀ), which is believed to originate from the Sanskrit word Muktā (मुक्ता). Linguists such as Mr. Laufey and Matsosov (1937-) believe that this term is not only related to Sanskrit, but also specifically connected to the mixed vernacular languages spoken in the northern regions of South Asia. This region was an important hub for ancient pearl trade and tribute exchange. Pearl diving was an extremely dangerous profession in ancient times, and merchants and pilgrims brought drilled and threaded pearls to the Eurasian heartland. To make these brightly colored gems more popular, countless origin myths were created for them. Oral stories of pearl divers by the sea were given a sacred halo from various religions, and most of the stories related to pearls in Tibet are associated with South Asia. As Mongol nobles began to be fascinated by the "magic of pearls" and their jewelry, the spread of "pearl narratives" in Tibet began to show diverse characteristics.

Common Tibetan "pearl narratives" have two main themes: myths that promote pearls as Buddhist treasures (pearls are included in the Five Treasures and Seven Treasures), and medical narratives that conform to pharmacological and biological classification systems. It is important to note that there is some overlap between the two types of narratives about pearls. In the mythological narratives, pearls produced by mollusks are of poor quality, and high-quality five-color pearls have special origins. White pearls are born from elephants and drive elephants crazy when they smell them. Red pearls are born from red fish and are the compassionate crystallization of Buddhist bodhisattvas. Green pearls and blue pearls are born from precious trees and are unique treasures of paradise. Dark pearls (or black red pearls) are born from snakes and have detoxifying properties. In some texts, the five-colored pearls correspond to the Five Dhyani Buddhas, with pearls adorning the floors of their Pure Lands, known as the Pearl Ground (མུ་ཏིག་ས).

"Five Buddhas in the Southern Direction: Amitabha Buddha"
14th century, Los Angeles County Museum of Art collection
Partial: Pay attention to the pearl ornaments on the main Buddha and Bodhisattva.
"The Lord Vishnu"
In the mid-5th century, housed in the National Museum in New Delhi

Pay attention to the pearl necklace around the deity's neck
And the water creature spitting out pearls on the deity's crown.
In medical narratives, people have retained some mythological narratives but emphasize the religious nature of these myths, and explicitly mention the origin of pearls as shell seeds (ཉ་ཕྱིས་ས་བོན). In classical times, medical practitioners classified pearls into six refined and four mixed types (in some texts, three mixed types). The six refined types (མུ་ཏིག་རིན་ཆེན་དྲུག) can all treat concussions and detoxify. Mixed pearls include "Dokar" pearls (འདོལ་ཁ་མུ་ཏིག; soft pearls), Chinese pearls, and small pearls (louse-shaped pearls), all of which can treat mental illnesses and cataracts. In medical narratives, pearls with both male and female characteristics can represent diseases related to men and women (the description of pearls aiding reproduction is similar to that in Northern Asia); while in the context of Buddhist construction, pearls with dual male and female nature, like relics, can symbolize wisdom and expedient means, serving as visual symbols of enlightenment.

In addition, the "pearl chain" (མུ་ཏིག་ཕྲེང་བ) is also a recurring theme in South Asian and Himalayan art, continuously transmitted. In sculptures and architectural decorations from the 2nd to the 6th century AD, crowns, earrings, necklaces, bracelets, anklets, belts, necklaces, and armbands adorned with the "pearl chain" form abound. In the works of artifice, the "pearl chain" is a substitute for the lotus root stem, embodying the romantic idea of "gods and Buddhas wearing constellations." In the early post-Hongyi period Tibetan monasteries and Newar-style paintings, artists extensively use the "pearl chain" as a decorative motif. The "pearl chain" also became a symbol of crystallized wisdom and supreme aesthetics in later generations, used as a title for books.
"Blue Lapis Tibetan Medicine Tangka: Properties and Functions of Medicinal Materials"
In the first half of the 20th century, the Menzikang Tibetan Medical Institute in Lhasa
Partial: male and female pearls and shells

Male and female pearls: pearls with and without eyes
(The so-called eyes refer to the presence or absence of holes in the center)

Five jewels in five pure lands.

This article is translated from Sorang Wangqing's blog.

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