A super large Pumtek created in the 1990s. This high quality bead is not to be confused with beads from the 1920s and earlier. 86.50 mm x 15.90 mm

Ancient Pumtek bead from Burma. This bead never managed to reach the stage of decoration and drilling. 9.80 mm

Pumtek with zig zag stripes and monkey decoration. 

Probably from 1990s production. a

approx 40 mm x 11 mm

Excerpt from The Chin Hills: a history of our people, Volume 1 By Bertram Sausmarez Carey, Henry Newman Tuck ~ Published 1896

"The cornelian is the most prized ornament of the Soktes, Siyins and Tashons. Although the Hakas collect and preserve these necklaces, they do not wear them so generally as is the fashion of the north, and they do not value them like the sacred Pumtek, which is at once the most prized and the most costly possession of the southerner, and is always readily exchangeable for any valuable such as cattle, guns and slaves"

Above: Ancient Pumtek beads supposedly from 

river finds during the monsoon season.

Excerpt from the Lakhers's by N. E. Parry published 1932.

"In Tisi the theft of a necklace of Pumtek beads is regarded as very serious, and the thief is fined a cow (mithun), and has to return the necklace. The theft of a pumtek necklace, as it is always worn round its owner's neck, is considered to be tantamount to cutting the owner's throat. If a man loses his pumtek necklace, and it is found and restored to him, he is expected to give the finder a dao (thuasang), the reason for this being the belief that a man who finds a lost pumtek necklace is liable to suffer from weak eyes, and that the gift of a thuasang, which carried the idea of brightness, will restore the dimmed eyes of the finder of the necklace."