Tibetan dZi and other Himalayan Beads

Tibetan women with beaded hair braids.

Nomadic Tibetan women often wear their hair in two styles of braids. They may choose to wear it in large braids (slas chen) or small braids (slas zhib). Girls who are unmarried often comb their hair into three large braids and rarely wear ornamnents in their hair, apart from the occasional piece of amber, coral or turquoise. Once a girl is married this will then change as she can now start to wear it in the fashion shown above. This style is called 'Pakma Trale'. These braids are considered a very important part of the wedding ceremony. There are usually 108 braids which is a sacred an auspicious Buddhist number. As a married woman she will start to wear an increasing number of hair ornaments that usually consist of large pieces of amber, coral, turquoise and dZi.