Himalayan Yak Bone Hair Sticks

These 3 beautiful hair sticks are made of bamboo and yak bone. I found them in the Wednesday Anjuna markets in Goa, and brought them from a really sweet guy who had brought them with him from Tibet.

Yak bone is made from the yak, which is an animal found in Tibet and the Himalayan regions. Jewelry made from yak bone is often brown in color, but it can be dyed, as two out these three hair sticks have been.

In Tibetan culture, bone is used in daily life because the more we contemplate death the more fruitful our life becomes. We begin to live life differently and accept that death is inevitable while the path to the end of this life is about service to others, loving all, and being happy (without the pursuit of happiness) in each moment...through the supposed good and bad.

Yak is an important animal in Tibet as they are used as packing animals for the nomadic tribes and to honour their passing they are used in practice. Continuing to be of service as they pass from this consciousness to another.

The beauty of hair sticks is that they hold hair up in place without damaging it the way that tight elastics do. They are also very elegant and beautiful, and were the original method used for women to put their hair up and out of their faces.