天珠

天珠(dZi)(學名：鑲蝕瑪瑙) 4000BC – 1100AD

天珠，藏文གཟི།，發音dZi(或音Zee/斯)，意為：尊貴(天珠又有Rinpoche(即尊貴的)之稱謂)、莊嚴、具德、富足、優雅等。相傳，天珠是在遠古時候，法師修法，與天相應，從天上降下的寶石，或於西藏發生天災瘟疫時，天神降下的石質珠子，鎮住天災瘟疫，所以又有「天降神石」之稱，現代人因而稱之為「天珠」。

中土文獻中，有關天珠的記載，最早可追溯到唐朝太宗貞觀十五年（西元641年）。《新唐書》卷230〈列傳上‧吐蕃上〉記載：「其官之章飾，最上瑟瑟，金次之，金塗銀又次之，銀次之，最下至銅止，差大小，綴臂前以辨貴賤。」，近有學者認為文中「瑟瑟」，是指「綠松石」，並說「大約」是古代伊朗(波斯)語jamsat的「對音省譯」。〈吐蕃傳〉以吐蕃(西藏)的記事為主，一切應以西藏風俗文化作首要的考量。琉發(Laufer 1913)在《東方綠松石考証》(Notes on Turquoise in the East)中指出：藏語zee (གཟི། 音：斯)，波斯語Sjizu，阿拉伯語djazu和梵文cesha，這四種語言的發音，都是清楚俐落的「瑟瑟」。由於藏語「གཟི།」的發音不是「大約」的「對音省譯」，而是，完完全全、實實在在，符合「瑟瑟」之譯音，故〈列傳上‧吐蕃上〉所指的應是現代人所說的「西藏天珠」，此其一。其二，從西藏的風俗文化看，自古以來，西藏人崇尚的寶石，依次序為：天珠(གཟི། 音：zee/斯)居首，紅珊瑚(བྱུ་རུ།音：churu/曲茹)僅次，綠松石(གཡུ།音：yu/釉)居第三。西藏貴族，喜歡把頂級大顆的紅珊瑚成串地掛在脖上。綠松石掛串則需配上紅珊瑚，原因是綠松石的產量較多，而且顏色不夠奪目，所以必須配以紅珊瑚才可顯得高貴突出，從此小節亦可看出其主次之分，綠松石在藏民心目中的地位，確是較紅珊瑚低。再看〈吐蕃傳〉「其官之章飾，最上瑟瑟，金次之…」，明顯是以品種的稀有分高低。然則，列於黃金之上者，應是另有其者，不應是綠松石。依藏語「གཟི།」的讀音、西藏的風俗習慣，以及其價值高低，皆與文獻中的「瑟瑟」吻合，故〈吐蕃傳〉中的「瑟瑟」，必為「西藏天珠」莫屬。

---摘自《天珠探秘叢書》﹙1﹚〈藏傳天珠 . 源起 . 真品天珠鑑賞〉

dZi beads (Etched Agate)

The Chinese Literature of Central Land have records about dZi, it was traced back to 15^th years of Emperor Tang Taizong of the Tang Dynasty (641 AD). It was recorded in Chapter 230 'The Biography of Tibet' (列傳上‧吐蕃上) of "The New Book of Tang"  : " The accessories and badges of the government officials, the best one is Zee Zee, gold second, gold plated silver follows and then silver, the worst one is copper, and the size determines its values." Recent scholars thought that the word "zee zee" refers to

'turquoise', and said that it was 'roughly' like the transliteration of the ancient Iran (Persia) language 'jamsat'. In the "The Biography of Tibet", it recorded mostly the Tibetan events, everything should be looked from the perspective of its customs and cultures. Laufer (1913) pointed out in his book "Notes on Turquoise in the East" that : The Tibetan word "zee" (གཟི།),in Persian language "Sjizu", Arabic "djazu" and sanskrit "cesha", this word is pronounced distinctively in these four languages as "zee zee". Since the transliteration of " གཟི། " in Tibetan language exactly matched with the sound "zee zee",thus what "The Biography of Tibet" (列傳上‧吐蕃上) referred to is "Tibetan dZi", as it is called by the modern people, this is point one. Secondly, gems and stones are part of the Tibetan customs and cultures, the order of ranking is: dZi (གཟི། sound：zee) ranks first, red coral (བྱུ་རུ། sound：churu) comes next, and turquoise (གཡུ། sound：yu) ranks third. The Tibetan nobles liked to use the top grade red coral to make into a strand and wore it over the neck. And turquoise strand usually mixed with red coral, the reason for that is there are more turquoise being produced and its colour is not as stunning, therefore it must goes with red coral to make it more grandeur, through this minor point it can already tell the difference in their ranking, and in the mind of the Tibetan people, the ranking of turquoise is definitely lower than red coral. To look further in "The Biography of Tibet", 'The accessories and badges of the government officials .... ' it is very obvious that they used the scarcity of the gems to determine its ranking. However, it should have another gem on top of gold instead of turquoise. But according to the Tibetan language "གཟི།", its pronounciation and habits are the same as "zee zee" in "The Biography of Tibet", so it is for sure that they are "Tibetan dZi".

---Exploring Mystic dZi Series(1) -Tibetan dZi.Origination.Authentic dZi Appreciation