| Prayer Beads Buddhist prayer beads are traditional devotional tools of prayer used in various forms of Buddhism. They are similar to other forms of prayer beads and the Rosary used in various world religions; thus this tool has also been known as the Buddhist rosary. Prayer beads or japa malas are used in many forms of Mahayana Buddhism, often with a lesser number of beads than the Hindu japa malas's 108--usually a divisor of 108. In Pure Land Buddhism, for instance, 27-bead rosaries are common. In Chinese culture such rosaries are named, shu zhu ("Counting Beads"), Fo zhu ("Buddha Beads"), or nian zhu ("Prayer Beads"). In Japan they are "Juzu". In Tibetan Buddhism, often larger malas are used, for example 111 beads. One mala consists of 100 mantras, with 11 extra taken to compensate for errors. |