About
Welcome To Mala Counters
My name is AlejAndro Anastasio. I am a Tibetan Dzogchen Vajrayana Buddhist practitioner, life long artist, and the sole operator and craftsperson of these products. Mala Counters is a one person shop creating small runs of high quality hand crafted Mala Counters and Malas with high quality components. I also offer some of the finest 925 Sterling Silver Bhum Counters to help count, track, and support your mantra practice.
My goal and intention is to offer you the best quality hand crafted Mala Counters and Malas. I create these in very small runs to ensure the highest standard of quality possible. Each item is built from beginning to end by me. My main products are the 925 Sterling Silver Mala Counters which come in a variety of sizes and cord colors. 108 Bead Malas are also offered but in much less quantity and built with the same amount of care and hand crafted good intention. All Bhum counters are out-sourced and made available. I do not make the bhum counters.
Accurate, beautiful, and hand crafted, these tools make the perfect gift, offering, or personal Dharma accessory to enhance and support your practice.
The Story Behind Mala Counters
I have been a student of Buddhism forthe past 24 years. I fist started as a Rinzai Zen practitioner in support of my martial art of Aikido training. For the past 20 years I have been a Tibetan Dzogchen Vajrayana Buddhist practitioner. Currently I am Director and head Teacher of the Boise Dharma Center in Boise, Idaho. All Mala Counters and Malas are built with the intention to support and enhance the Dharma practice of myself and others.
In the beginning I first made a set of Mala Counters for my own person use. I realized true high quality Mala Counters were difficult to find. I began to notice many of the Mala Counters I purchased either would not last very long, they would lose their ability to stay accurate, or both. It did not matter if I paid a lot of money or not-so-much money. The Mala Counters would eith break, lose their accuracy, or were just not very qood quality. Even the expensive sterling silver sets I found were not long term and accurate Dharma supports.
I first set out to create a high quality practice tools to support my mantra practices. I wanted Mala Counters there were made from quality materials, were beautiful, and accurate over long periods of time and use. It took years of research, continous lot trial and error, and constant builing and testing products to be able to offer a product I would use.
Eventually many students in the Boise Dharma Center started to ask where I acquired the Mala Counters. I first began offering Mala Counters to my students. Then I was being asked by our larger sangha and within our lineage's organization. As interest grew I began being asked if I also had malas for sale. At that point I started to make very small runs of 108 bead malas and made them available. It was not long after that I started to souce out and offer a variety of Bhum Counters for tracking ten thousand, hundred thousand, and millions of mantras.
The demand for my products kept growing. One day I realized I was running a small business. At that point I started an Etsy page and this website. Over the past 5 years I have sold my products all over the world. I have even started to do custom mala builds, mala restorations, and mala restringing.
My main focus and product are the 925 Sterling Silver hand crafted Mala Counters. They come in a variety of sizes from extra small (3mm) to an occasonal 5XL (11mm), have differnt options for the Bells and Dorjes (sometimes Phurba and Drikugs are available), and come in a wide selection of nylon braided cord colors. All my Mala Counters and Bhum Counters are made from 925 Sterling Silver. They are designed for long term accuracy, beauty, and durability.
I offer these small runs of hand crafted high quality Mala Counters and Malas to all students along with a large selection of 925 Sterling Silver Bhum Counters. On occasion I will offer shine and alter supplies as they become available. or other special items I find on my travels to Tibet, Nepal, and China.
When you make a decision and commitment to practice with more sincerity and depth you will want practice tools made with the same devotion. You can find them here at Mala Counters.