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(Gzi beads of different designs strung together to form a beautiful necklace)

The motifs on Gzi beads can generally be grouped into dots, stripes, rectangles, circles, triangles, lozenges, polygons, seed syllables, irregular patterns, animal designs, sbsract designs and special symbols. I dare not make any wild guess of their specific significance and function. I would rather investigate into Tantric liturgies and scriptures to find out the nomenclature and symbolical meaning of different signs. With this, I hope the motifs, designs and symbols on the Gzi beads can be properly interpreted.

1. The Tantric ritual of Homa(burnt offering)suggests some clued.
There are four kinds of Homa corresponding to the fourfold activities of peace, development, perfection and force ,each represented by a specific color and symbol to denote its significance and function.
1) Homa of Peace: represented by white color and a circle sign ¡±O¡±. It is menat for preventing calamities, averting misfortune and eliminating obstacles.
2) Homa of Development: represented by yellow color and a square sing. It is meant for prospering business, multiplying wealth, gaining fortune and wisdom.
3) Homa fo Perfection: represented by red color and a crescent sign. It is meant for improving health, perfecting relationship and building leadership.
4) Homa of Force: represented by black color and a triangular sign. It is meant for warding off harmful force, subjugating demons and expelling evil obstructions.
These four types of symbols always appear on Gzi bead, alone or in combination. They are characterized by different names, meanings and functions. For instance, Gzi with a circle is called single-eyed Gzi while those with tow circles double-eyed Gzi, and so on up to twelve-eyed Gzi. As for combination design, the design of a circle and a square on a Gzi is called¡±Heaven-and-Earth¡±(circle for Heaven and square for Earth);design for two circles and two square is called¡± Double Heaven-and ¨CEarth¡±.

I believe that it is feasible to apply the significance and functions of these Homa symbols to similar symbols on the Gzi beads.
1) Wearing Gzi beads with circular symbol brings peace. As to whether more circles means greater peace, I cannot provide and immediate answer. It involves wide-ranging aspects and diverse opinions. Perhaps collectors and wearers of Gzi bead can verify this through their personal experience.
2) Wearing Gzi beads with square symbol brings develpement. However, Gzi with square symbol is rare. Squares are mostly accompanied by circles, such as the design known as ¡° Heaven and Earth¡±, which serves the dual purposes of bringing peace and development.
3) Wearing Gzi with crescent symbol brings perfection. Crescent symbol often appears slone on goa¡¯s- eye Gzi. On most other Gzi with an oblong body, it comes with other symbols.
4) Wearing Gzi with triangular symbol helps warding off evil obstructions and subjugating demons. Triangular symbol often appears alone on goat¡¯s-eye Gzi. On most other Gzi with and oblong body, it appears together with other symbols.
 
Perhaps the readers have seen or hear of Gzi bearing all four symbols. They are said to have the fourfold functions of bringing peace, development, perfection and force. Gzi with such a design are extremely rare.


(Three Gzi beads in the collection of Mr. Yang, and entrepreneur.)

2. The Nyan deities mentioned in the major Bon canon Lubum also provide some clues:
Nyan is one of the major group of deities worshipped by the Bonpos who believe that every natural element, such as the sun, the moon, star, cloud, rainbow, wind, earth, snow, sea, cliff,, wood, water and rock, is represented by a Nyan deity. These deities govern all the antural phenomena including whether the sky is overcast or shiny, whether there is snow, wind clouds, thunder or lightning. It is said that the ancient Bonpos and Zhangzhung people had derived some abstract figures ad symbols and made use of theme to express their piety to the Nyan deities. The terminology of these symbols and the meaning they represent are quite different from those used in the Homa. For example, circle [O] was used for Sun Nyan, square [] for Earth Nyan, crescent []for Moon Nyan, combination of one circle and one square[O ]for Heaven and Earth Nyan. The most well-known symbol is the Yuandrung sign in the form of a counterclockwise swastika[], representing permanence.

3. Opinions of Rinpoch
I have consulate some Nyingmapa Rinpoche about their opinions of these symbols. Though they did not specify the talismanic property of each kind of motif, all of them pointed out concisely that waring Gzi beads not only helped remove karmic obstruction and increase merit, but also helped prevent and eliminate complicate illness, chronicle disease and interference of demons.