Ice Obsidian Zodiac Guardian Necklace | Manjushri for Rabbit

The guardian of your birth year, carved in translucent obsidian.

In Chinese Buddhist tradition each of the twelve animals is watched over by one of eight Buddhas and bodhisattvas, the benmingfo (本命佛), and the custom is to wear your own. Thousand-armed Guanyin for the rat, Akasagarbha for ox and tiger, Manjushri for the rabbit, Samantabhadra for dragon and snake, Mahasthamaprapta for the horse, Vairocana for sheep and monkey, Acala for the rooster, Amitabha for dog and pig. Each is carved in relief on a tablet of ice obsidian in its own iconography, Manjushri on his lion with the sword raised, Acala ringed in flame.

Obsidian is volcanic glass, long kept for protection, and the ice form is cut thin enough that light passes through the halo. It hangs on a full chain of black beads with agate. Choose the guardian for the year you were born; it is the usual gift for a child's first zodiac birthday, and for anyone entering their benmingnian, the year of their own animal.