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Mani stone 

Mani (prayer) stone can be found everywhere in Tibet, even the most deserted area, people carve scripture ‘om mani padme hum’ on the stone as a kind of ‘protection of the mind’. Carving mani stone also regard as an act of merit.

Mani stones are intentionally placed along the roadsides & rivers or placed together to form mounds as an offering to spirits of the place. Mani stones can also pile up became mani walls, these long walls are common at holy sites in Tibet.

The world’s largest Mani wall (stone mound) is in Qinghai (western China), it has 283m long from the east to west & running 74m from north to south, with a height of 3.4m. It estimated to have over 2 billion stones used.

 Mani wall will continue to grow as long as the believe still alive in people’s heart. If everyone has a big heart to respect other people’s believe & life-style, the world will be a better place, and we may finally found the real Shangri-la.

The picture here is mini nature mani stone beads used as pendant in jewelry making.   

Miao Silver 

Miao is one of the minority tribe living in south-west China (mainly in Guizhou), they are regarded valiant warriors & somehow with a mystery veil. This minority group is rebellious highlanders among Chinese, and their men still wore skirts & beautiful silver jewelry in early last century. Well, remind you about the Scottish, right?

Even they lived in the remote highland; they were not spared during the political turbulence in middle of last century, & were forced to alter some of their own culture & tradition. So men seldom in their traditional skirts now, but their passion for silver jewelry still persisted.

Nowadays, there are many folk product shops in China selling handmade Miao Silver stuffs, from household wares to knives, from magnificent chest locks & neck rings to delicate bracelets & ear rings. But there is no official standard for silver content, product vary from sterling silver (925-950) to silver free alloy, and sometimes sterling silver plated. This is the same situation for other minority silver wares, like Bai Silver (a tribe mainly in Yunnan). So don’t be blinded by the term ‘silver’, ask for more details & buy from reputable shops only.

P.S. It may not be easy to find a reputable shop especially when you are tourist. But it will be a good practice to ask your seller to write the full description clearly on the invoice. Language should not be a barrier for sincere & professional sellers, like ‘925 sterling silver’ must not be ‘alien’ for them.