Tibetan Mandala Pendant Necklace

$135.00 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Art jewelry inspired by The Met collection. The late 19th–early 20th-century Tibetan amulet box, or ga'u , that inspired this bejeweled pendant would have been worn around the neck to protect the wearer. Its form, comprising two intersecting squares that symbolize crossed vajras , or thunderbolts, suggests the stability of Buddhism, while its striking stone embellishments represent the crystalline nature of the heavens. Amulet boxes typically contained written or printed texts consecrated by monks, and often…