Heirloom Kachin Amber 108 Bead Mala/Strand

$ 1,932.00 $ 1,545.60

  • Extraordinary Heirloom Kachin Burmite 100% Natural Hand Shaped and Polished Amber 108 Bead Mala.
  • The Mala is graduated 9mm (smallest) beads to 18mm (largest), with the largest beads in the center of the Mala. Doubled over as a necklace, the largest, most extravagant 18mm beads are center neckline.
  • 45" long with 5" drop (including tassel)
  • Once thought to be about the same age as Mexican Amber, it was recently realized that Burmite Amber is much older, at least 100 million years old, which means that it was formed during the Cretaceous Period. Possibly because of its age, Burmite Amber is harder than other Ambers.
  • Amber is the fossilized sap of extinct trees that can be found in the temperate and subtropical forests some 60 to 100 million years ago. For unknown reasons, these trees produced excessive amounts of sap. The overproduction of sap may have been natural, and was the trees' own way of healing natural damage or injuries caused by storms, lightning, pests or disease, or sudden changes in climate. Sap ran down from the trees and gathered on the forest floors, becoming embedded with local sediments and compressed by overlying deposits. Over enormous periods of time and pressure, these hardened Amber deposits/ beds became fossilized. 
  • Amber can be golden clear to deep cognac colors, but most of the material displays swirls of color, which, under magnification, prove to be made up of minute dots of naturally occurring color due organic elements trapped inside the Amber flow as it was hardening or forming.
  • Burmite Amber has a soft fluorescence in sunlight. However, under a UV lamp, Burmite Amber surfaces display a strong fluorescence in an almost mid-blue color - much darker than Baltic Amber.
  • Historically, Amber has been used as an ingredient in perfumes, as a healing agent in folk medicine, and as a highly valued component in jewelry as early as the Neolithic era. Early physicians prescribed Amber for headaches and heart problems. Historical accounts say that Burmite Amber made its way to the Roman Empire via the Silk Road in China as early as the first century AD. In common folklore, it is believed to absorb pain and disease especially of the  throat and head, and dispel negative energy. Amber is thought to improve mood and attract love.
  • This extravagantly beautiful and luxurious Mala is strung in the same configuration as it was found in Yunnan, China years ago.