Jade Buddha pendant, carved in relief: the seated laughing figure, the sack in one hand, a string of beads and a longevity lock engraved on the chest. Drilled and strung on a braided cord.
The figure is Budai, a Chinese monk of the 10th century, not the historical Buddha. The trade kept the word; this page tells you which of the two you are wearing.
No metal touches the stone: it is weighable, and the figure will be published here with its date. Treatment status not determined. Why I write it.
A jade Buddha pendant carved in relief: the figure is seated, laughing, belly bare, a sack in one hand and a cabochon of the tree of life in the other, a string of beads and a longevity lock engraved on the chest. It is drilled right through and strung on a black braided cord.
In four lines
Relief carving, drilled, strung on a braided cord. No metal.
The laughing figure is Budai, a Chinese monk, not the historical Buddha.
Bare stone, therefore weighable: the figure will be published here, with its date.
A deep, even green, whose evenness this page discusses further down.
This figure is not the Buddha
The laughing round-bellied figure everyone calls “Buddha” is Budai, a Chinese monk of the tenth century, a wandering beggar, later associated with the Buddha to come, Maitreya. He is not Siddhartha Gautama, the historical Buddha, who is shown slender, in meditation, eyes lowered.
The word “Buddha” has stuck in the trade, and I use it in the title of this page because that is the word people search for this piece with. But I am not going to let anyone believe that the sack, the belly and the laugh are the Buddha’s: they are Budai’s, and the attribution was made in China, not in India. The whole story of the figure.
It is a religious figure. Given as a gift, it does not suit everyone, and it is better to know that beforehand: giving a piece of jade jewellery.
A deep, even green, and what I can say about it
The carving is a clear, deep green, almost uniform, lighter on the raised parts and darker in the hollows. That contrast is optics, not a clue: on any carved and polished stone, the bumps return the light and the hollows stay in shadow.
What would deserve attention is different: a colour that follows a network of cracks rather than the shape, or that concentrates around the drill hole. On a carved piece, the chisel hollows are where a dye lodges best, and a jeweller’s loupe is enough to see whether it is there. I assert nothing about this piece, whose treatment status is not determined, like that of the whole catalogue. The checks that need no equipment.
The carving, and what it demands of the material
A relief like this one cannot be cut in just any stone: it takes a material that accepts deep hollows without splitting along a plane. Jade allows it thanks to its toughness, a structure of interlocking crystals that stops a crack from spreading. Its hardness, on the other hand, stays ordinary, 6.5 to 7 for jadeite. The difference between hardness and toughness.
The practical consequence: it is the fine edges of the relief that suffer, not the mass. A knock will not open the piece, it will chip the edge of a sleeve or an ear. And the quartz in the ambient dust, which rates 7, dulls the domed surfaces far more surely than an accident. A very soft brush for the hollows, warm water, a mild soap. Care in detail.
Why I write jade Buddha pendant, and not simply green stone
Because the word jade on its own does not say much, and because the laughing figure is precisely the motif most often carved in something else. What is sold under this name is very often serpentine, labelled “new jade” or “Korean jade”, or dyed quartzite, sold as “Malaysia jade”. None of those names designates jade.
The difference is physical and it can be measured: the four markers in the record are separated by far more than the uncertainty of a kitchen scale. Here the stone is bare, so the figure will come. That is what licenses the word genuine on this site, and nothing else: never the untreated set against the treated. I weigh, I do not certify.
Additional information
Stone
Jadéite
Color
Clear green
Stone shape
Carving in the round
Motif
Laughing Buddha (Budai)
Mounting
Braided cord
Metal
None
Setting
Drilled stone
Worn by
Unisex
Paired stones
None, jade only
Mineral family
Sodium aluminum pyroxene
Hardness (Mohs)
6.5 to 7
Reference density
3.25 to 3.36 g/cm³
Toughness
Exceptional, interlocking crystals
Treatment
Not determined
Origin
Outside Burma, country of extraction not confirmed
What tradition attributes to the laughing Buddha
What follows changes register, and I flag it rather than blending it into the rest of the page. None of it is proven. These are customs and beliefs, old and documented, which I report because they are part of the history of this stone and of this motif. No piece of jewellery in this shop is sold as a treatment, and I claim no effect for this one.
Budai, and not the BuddhaThe figure is a Chinese monk of the 10th century, a wandering beggar, later associated with the Buddha to come, Maitreya. The identification is Chinese and late: it is documented, it is not doctrinal.
The sackBudai is almost always shown with a cloth sack, hence his name, which literally means cloth sack. Tradition makes it in turn the sack of alms or the sack of carried-off worries. Both readings circulate.
The belly and the laughThe bare belly and the open laugh are marks of abundance and detachment in Chinese iconography, the opposite of asceticism. It is a convention of representation, not a promise.
A religious figureIt is an object of devotion for many people, and an ornament for others. Given as a gift, it does not suit everyone. I mention it because the question genuinely arises, and rarely on product pages.
Shipped within 48 hours of your order being confirmed, for delivery within 14 days from the day it ships. I keep no buffer stock, and I will not promise a date I cannot meet.
Shipping Costs
€6.99 no matter the destination, and free on orders of €47 or more to France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Luxembourg. The exact amount shows in your cart before you pay.
The Packaging, and Why It Matters
Every piece leaves in its own pouch, kept apart from the others. This is not about presentation: jade’s hardness is ordinary, 6 to 6.5 for nephrite and 6.5 to 7 for jadeite, and the quartz in everyday dust rates 7. Two pieces of jewelry that travel together arrive scratched.
Fourteen Days to Change Your Mind
No reason needed. One email opens a return, and there is no form to fill out. Return shipping is at your expense, unless the piece does not match its listing or arrives damaged.
Lukewarm water, mild soap, a soft cloth. A very soft brush for the hollows of a carving. That is all, and it is enough.
What You Must Never Do, and Why
No ultrasonic cleaner, no steam, no solvent, no heat source. The reason is not caution for its own sake: the treatment status of my pieces is undetermined. My supplier cannot tell me, and the weighing establishes the mineral without saying anything about a possible resin impregnation. Resin withstands neither heat nor solvents, so every piece is handled as though it might contain some. The treatment information page.
The Scratch, and Where It Comes From
Jade is tough, meaning very hard to break: its structure of interlocking crystals resists cracking, and that is what made it possible to turn it into axes in the Neolithic. Its hardness, on the other hand, is ordinary, 6 to 6.5 for nephrite and 6.5 to 7 for jadeite. The quartz in everyday dust rates 7, and that is what dulls a jade, not impacts. The difference between the two.
Day to Day
Put the piece on after perfume and lotion, never before. Take it off for housework, gardening, and sports, where the hard knocks happen. Store each piece on its own, in its pouch. On a strand of beads, the thread wears out before the stone does: it gets restrung, and there is nothing abnormal about that.
My name is Jade. I am French, from Morbihan in Brittany, and I live in Tallinn. I choose the pieces and have them set: I mine nothing, I carve nothing, and I do not do the metalwork myself. What I bring is the sorting, and with this material the sorting decides everything.
I am not a gemologist, a lapidary, or a therapist, and I do not claim to be.
I Weigh, I Do Not Certify
Before putting a reference online, I order one example of it for myself. When it reaches me unset, I weigh it in air, then suspended from a thread in a glass of water: the ratio of the two masses gives the density, and that figure separates jadeite, nephrite, serpentine, and dyed quartzite without ambiguity.
One example per reference, and not every piece. I never handle the piece that ships to you, and I would rather say so plainly than let anyone believe otherwise. The method, with its three limitations.
What I Cannot Know
The treatment status of my pieces. My supplier cannot tell me, and neither can the scale: it establishes the mineral, not the resin impregnation. Only laboratory infrared spectroscopy would settle the question, and I do not have that testing done. So you will never read “jadeite A”, “type A” or “untreated” on this site. The information page.
Where My Jade Comes From
No Burmese jadeite, and the first reason is legal. Not the one you read everywhere: the JADE Act of 2008 did ban these stones in the United States, but that ban was lifted on October 7, 2016. What applies today dates from April 8, 2021: the US Treasury sanctioned Myanma Gems Enterprise, the state-owned company that controls the Burmese gem trade. So there is no blanket ban, but an American is not allowed to do business with that entity, and a stone never tells you where it has been. I run one supply chain for ten markets, and it has to stand up to the strictest one. When an origin is not confirmed to me in writing, the listing does not state it. My origin policy.
