Half Face Buddha Protection Necklace

The carver stopped at the middle of the face.

One eye, one brow, half a nose, half a mouth. Everything to the right of that centre line is plain polished stone and was never going to be anything else. This is not an unfinished carving. It is liubai (留白), the leaving of blank space, the same principle that makes a Chinese ink painting mostly empty paper. The empty part is doing work: you already know what a Buddha looks like, so the carving only has to give you enough.

The hair is the tight spiral curls, luoji (螺髻), each one cut with its own small turn. The eye is closed and turned down. It is not looking at you, which is the whole intention of a Buddha face.

Black obsidian is the protection stone in Chinese practice, worn to take the edge off whatever is coming at you rather than to draw anything in. It is volcanic glass, which is why it takes a polish like this and why the cut surface turns matte grey. The strand is round obsidian beads on braided cord, with a single bead painted in gold Sanskrit sitting above the pendant.

For anyone who wants a Buddha they can wear to work. From across a room it reads as a plain black tablet. It only resolves into a face when someone is close enough to be talking to you.