Kye Cha

Using Prayer beads as a tool of meditation is as old as written history. It is not a coincidence that Prayer beads are present in almost every religion.

Prayer beads may have physical, metaphysical and psychological effects on their users. Since the beads are fingered in an automatic manner, they allow the user to keep track of how many prayers have been said with a minimal amount of conscious effort, which in turn allows greater attention to be paid to the prayers themselves.

Prayer beads made with precious stones have attracted people with their colors and charming gloss since ancient times. Since then, each stone has gained special meaning. For instance Native Americans believed that the bones of the people wearing Turquoise wouldn’t be broken and they used to engrave this stone onto their shields during war. It is also known that Turquoise was also very important for Aztec culture where the stone was believed to give protection from evil effects. Again, in Native American culture it was believed that the Agate was good to quench thirst and used for this purpose.

In ancient Greek culture, it was believed that Amethyst would prevent people from becoming drunk and goblets were made of this stone.

Structure

The number of beads also vary depending on the different religions, Islamic prayer beads “Tesbih”, “Tasbih” or “Misbaha” usually have either 99 or 33 beads. Buddhists and Hindu Brahmanists use “Japa Mala” usually with 27 bead malas, a divisor of 108, or 108 itself, whereas Baha’i Prayer beads consist of either 95 beads or 19 beads strung with the addition of five beads below. Sikhs use a Mala with 108 beads. Greek “komboloi” has an odd number of beads usually one more than a multiple of four, e.g. (4×4)+1, (5×4)+1. Roman Catholics use the “Rosary” (Latin “rosarium”, meaning “rose garden”) with 54 with an additional five beads whereas Eastern Orthodox Christians use the “Rosary” with 100 knots, although “prayer ropes” with 50 or 33 knots can also be used.