Just before Christmas 2011, I noticed some excited talk of this jewellery range amongst what first seemed like a couple of people at work. It appeared that a bracelet seen on a few celebrities had hit the front line of fashion and a few (as I originally thought) were buying into it.
I asked someone what they were talking about and I apologise if I offend any fan of this jewellery, but I was presented with something that to me looked as if it had dropped out of a Christmas cracker. The bracelet was made up of a few bright blue balls, which I 've since learnt are a collection of magnetite crystals. The earrings are the cheapest consisting of just two studs and the necklace is the most pricey. It appears the more tacky, coloured balls you have on your peice of string, the more money you have to spend. Apparently, one bracelet can cost up to £300, or as I heard yesterday £80,000 but I believe this is heresay. Impressive? Well only if the peice actually resembled the cost.
That day, all people talked about was these bracelets and matters were only made worse when the instigator returned from his lunch break with more of the product. Everyone was crowding around looking at it, asking where it was from, the price, etc, (I just want to add here, that I currently live in Bedford. Bedford, you may not realise is not exactly known for it's fashion houses. It is better known for its large Asian community, John Bunyan and stabbings. So quite frankly, I would not get over excited by a peice of jewellery so accessible to H. Samuel). At this point, I made the utmost mistake of asking what the big commotion was about. I was met with a rush of dead end answers such as "everyone's wearing them" (well I'm not) and "it's the trend". I asked simply and non-judgementally "why do you want something everyone else is wearing?" and the response was a pointed, unintelligent attack on my own choice of style and how I follow trends as well. Not untrue, however, when the argument is in fact based on my use of hair extensions it loses all validity. I wore hair extensions because I was too impatient to let my hair grow, not because everyone else is and I want people to say "oh wow! I love your hair extensions, where did you get them?" This would be undeniably devastating and I would probably have removed them immediately.
By this point, it had become fairly obvious that nobody was going to shed much light on the beads. Maybe because they were all too busy comparing and competing items, maybe because they actually didn't know much about the beads themselves.
After a quick search online, I found that the bracelet and necklace design is based on Shambhala beads.
Shambhala is a hidden, mythical kingdom thought to be around inner Asia according to Tibetan and Indian Buddhist tradition. It is mentioned in various ancient texts, including ancient texts of the Zhang Zhung culture. Shambhala is seen as a Buddhist Pure Land, a kingdom whose reality is visionary or spiritual as much as physical or geographic.
Upon these findings, I think even the most religiously ignorant of us are aware that the whole basis of Budhism is to be non-materialistic, not greedy, not selfish or competitive. So where exactly in the ancient Tibetan script does it say, "make a line of jewellery soley based on making money. Charge people £300 for it and make sure it becomes a commodity amongst the rich and stupid". The small print would say something like "do not educated the customer on the meaning or origin".
It's amazing what people will buy into and even more amazing that people aim to look identical to the next idiot standing to the right of them. Where's the soul in that and where's the soul and meaning in Shambhala? I'm sure the Tibetan monks would be very proud.
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| All money, No class |
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| JLS record sales are clearly booming |
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| This is my favourite ;-) |
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| The real Shambhala |
