--- thomaslaw03 <thomaslaw03@...> skrev:

> Dear Gunnar,
>
> Thank you for your email.
>
> > In Burma, I have seen for sale two kinds of
> rosaries:
> > one with 32 beads (supposably for "kesa loma
> > nakhaa...")
>
> Could you tell me what is "kesa ..." for the use of
> rosary-chant?

It's the list of 32 parts of the body, as found in the
Khuddakapaa.tha and many other places in the Tipitaka
- an extensive analysis of these body-parts is given
in the Visuddhimagga; so this short rosary should be
used as a tool of kaayaanussati.

As for the theory that all rosaries in Burma are
imported from one of the two Chinas (who disagree
about everything, except the principle that there is
only one China), I doubt it. The rosaries were for
sale at the slope of the Shwe Dagon pagoda (a slope
which seems to be, commercially speaking, for Rangoon
what Via Dolorosa is for Jerusalem). Also, my first
Buddhist teacher, Sister Amita Nisatta, studied
Theravada Buddhism and meditation in Burma during the
years of U Nu (i. e. before the coup d'état of Ne
Win), and brought back some Burmese rosaries.

My own visit to Burma took place in January 1980, so I
don't know what it looks like now.

Gunnar