Two of our pieces open. If you want them filled, we will have it done — free.
What a gau is
For centuries across the Himalaya, people carried small metal shrines against the body: a hinged or threaded box holding something that had been blessed. A scrap of a teacher's robe. Grains of rice that had sat before the Buddha. A folded prayer, written and rolled tight.
The box was never the point. What was sealed inside it was the point, and almost nobody ever saw it.
The two pieces that open
Tibetan Stupa Locket
The lotus base unscrews on a cut thread. Inside is a real chamber. A stupa is a container by definition — the form Buddhism built to hold what mattered — so a stupa that does not open is a model of a stupa.
Wind Horse Locket
The base plate is hinged at one side and latched at the other, stamped S925 on the inside where only the owner will ever read it. Seven millimetres deep, and all of that depth is there to hold something.
Filled, or left empty
Consecrated. We place inside a fragment of a lama's robe together with a written prayer, seal the chamber, and send it ready. This is done at the monastery we work with, before the piece ships, and there is no charge for it. It adds no time — consecrated pieces still leave within the standard 1–3 business days.
Empty. We send the chamber clean and the base open, and you fill it yourself. People put in a parent's ashes, a lock of hair, a folded note, a grain of something from a place they will not go back to. This is the older use of the form, and in many ways the better one.
On the Stupa Locket you choose on the product page before checkout. On the Wind Horse Locket, email us after ordering and we will arrange it.
One thing to know before you choose
A consecrated shrine is sealed with its contents for you, and once that is done it cannot be returned or exchanged — unless it arrives faulty, damaged or not what you ordered. Left empty, either piece is covered by our ordinary 30-day returns.
What we do not claim
We do not say that a consecrated piece will protect you, heal you, or change what happens to you. What we can tell you is what is inside it, who put it there, and that it was done with care by people for whom the practice is real.
The rest is between you and what you carry.
May what you carry be worth the shrine you carry it in.
Tibetan Buddhist Jewelry · Traditional Fire-Gilding · Frequently Asked Questions