Carved Conch Shell Prayer Beads Mala w/ Om Mani Padme Hum GM-18 This listing is for a Carved Conch Shell prayer beads/ Mala with 108 beads. Prayer Mala or beads are usually used by Buddhists around the world especially in Tibet, Nepal and India. There are 108 conch Shell Beads and on each Beads Carved with Six Tibetan syllable Mantra OM MANI PADME HUM and it is the mantra of Avalokteshwara the Buddha of compassion and It means HAIL TO THE JEWEL IN THES Mani means jewel and padma means lotus. Last summer when i was there in Nepal, i met with the Tibetan family who made this mala. They said that it is a pretty big work to finish just one of this mala. As you can see in the picture, it is stunning and beautiful. This would be a great gift or an object to put in your shrine or for your meditation. I tried to take as many pictures as possible to show how exactly the beads look like Malas are usually used for meditation, counting mantras, and prostration and those counters are especially for counting when you do prostration or in a retreat for counting mantras. Each bead measures 8mm approximately and this prayer beads are hand made in Kathmandu Nepal by Tibetan Artist and shipping from Putney, Vermont USA. Not like many items on ebay those are shipping from China. Please email me for more detail and i will be more than happy to assist y