A Japa mala or mala (Sanskrit:mālā, meaning garland) is a set of prayer beads popular in India and Tibet, commonly made from 108beads. It is used for keeping
count while reciting, chanting, or mentally repeating a mantra or name/s of a particular
deity, a practice known in Sanskrit as japa.
This is the repetition of a mantra over and over again, usually in cycles of
auspicious numbers (in multiples of three), the most popular being 108. Malas were seen in the recent Julia Robert's movie, 'Eat, Pray, Love.'
