Tibetan Prayer Bead
This is a Tibetan skull bead carved from a human kneecap. Metal, cool, all that for sure. This came from a major collection I was lucky enough to help move on a few years ago. I don’t have good provenance (besides the bulk of the collection being reallyyyyy good). Usually these large beads are carved from the kneecaps of monks after death for use in prayer by other monks, I cannot confirm that at all but this is for sure human. I absolutely love how these are stylized, so cartoonish but so instantly iconic at the same time. I love how the proportions and shape of the kneecap are not changed at all. But that’s not super important. This is a lovely weird item that I’m happy to move on to it’s new owner. What is most important is the idea of owning a piece of a human. How can we do that? Why would we do that? I’ll likely explore this (a lot) more at another point, but I think in a practical sense the best question is, are you okay with owning this? I try to be fairly impartial with what others collect (though murderabilia will always be very problematic to me) with the very heavy asterisk of, have you really thought about this and are you really comfortable with this? This is a piece of a human. Best case scenario they know that someone would own it after they died. You cannot possibly know that. This distance between the origin and the new owner gives some folks comfort, and I think on certain items that’s fine. The distance between the original use and intent and owner and purpose allow for the contemporary consumption of the item to feel clean and safe. But human agency will never not be important, and when you buy this from me you will have the burden of ownership over the unclear agency of the real human being whose kneecap was carved into this prayer bead. Hopefully a monk happily gave his skeleton to be carved into prayer beads and hopefully he was okay with his temple selling some of those beads to raise funds for whatever they needed at the time. And hopefully that is the reality of this object. But I cannot know, and you cannot know, and you need to know that before you buy it from me. I don’t care how you feel about it after that but I need you to think about that for at least as long as this unreasonably long description of an antique that is ostensibly for sale despite the absurd ways in which I market my things. Hey, buy this bead, but first consider the nuances of existence for a while, thanks.
5"x2.5"2.5"
This is a Tibetan skull bead carved from a human kneecap. Metal, cool, all that for sure. This came from a major collection I was lucky enough to help move on a few years ago. I don’t have good provenance (besides the bulk of the collection being reallyyyyy good). Usually these large beads are carved from the kneecaps of monks after death for use in prayer by other monks, I cannot confirm that at all but this is for sure human. I absolutely love how these are stylized, so cartoonish but so instantly iconic at the same time. I love how the proportions and shape of the kneecap are not changed at all. But that’s not super important. This is a lovely weird item that I’m happy to move on to it’s new owner. What is most important is the idea of owning a piece of a human. How can we do that? Why would we do that? I’ll likely explore this (a lot) more at another point, but I think in a practical sense the best question is, are you okay with owning this? I try to be fairly impartial with what others collect (though murderabilia will always be very problematic to me) with the very heavy asterisk of, have you really thought about this and are you really comfortable with this? This is a piece of a human. Best case scenario they know that someone would own it after they died. You cannot possibly know that. This distance between the origin and the new owner gives some folks comfort, and I think on certain items that’s fine. The distance between the original use and intent and owner and purpose allow for the contemporary consumption of the item to feel clean and safe. But human agency will never not be important, and when you buy this from me you will have the burden of ownership over the unclear agency of the real human being whose kneecap was carved into this prayer bead. Hopefully a monk happily gave his skeleton to be carved into prayer beads and hopefully he was okay with his temple selling some of those beads to raise funds for whatever they needed at the time. And hopefully that is the reality of this object. But I cannot know, and you cannot know, and you need to know that before you buy it from me. I don’t care how you feel about it after that but I need you to think about that for at least as long as this unreasonably long description of an antique that is ostensibly for sale despite the absurd ways in which I market my things. Hey, buy this bead, but first consider the nuances of existence for a while, thanks.
5"x2.5"2.5"
This is a Tibetan skull bead carved from a human kneecap. Metal, cool, all that for sure. This came from a major collection I was lucky enough to help move on a few years ago. I don’t have good provenance (besides the bulk of the collection being reallyyyyy good). Usually these large beads are carved from the kneecaps of monks after death for use in prayer by other monks, I cannot confirm that at all but this is for sure human. I absolutely love how these are stylized, so cartoonish but so instantly iconic at the same time. I love how the proportions and shape of the kneecap are not changed at all. But that’s not super important. This is a lovely weird item that I’m happy to move on to it’s new owner. What is most important is the idea of owning a piece of a human. How can we do that? Why would we do that? I’ll likely explore this (a lot) more at another point, but I think in a practical sense the best question is, are you okay with owning this? I try to be fairly impartial with what others collect (though murderabilia will always be very problematic to me) with the very heavy asterisk of, have you really thought about this and are you really comfortable with this? This is a piece of a human. Best case scenario they know that someone would own it after they died. You cannot possibly know that. This distance between the origin and the new owner gives some folks comfort, and I think on certain items that’s fine. The distance between the original use and intent and owner and purpose allow for the contemporary consumption of the item to feel clean and safe. But human agency will never not be important, and when you buy this from me you will have the burden of ownership over the unclear agency of the real human being whose kneecap was carved into this prayer bead. Hopefully a monk happily gave his skeleton to be carved into prayer beads and hopefully he was okay with his temple selling some of those beads to raise funds for whatever they needed at the time. And hopefully that is the reality of this object. But I cannot know, and you cannot know, and you need to know that before you buy it from me. I don’t care how you feel about it after that but I need you to think about that for at least as long as this unreasonably long description of an antique that is ostensibly for sale despite the absurd ways in which I market my things. Hey, buy this bead, but first consider the nuances of existence for a while, thanks.
5"x2.5"2.5"