Any traveller who ventures today into a remote area where Buddhism is practiced in the Himalayas, Ladakh or Tibet is certain to come across examples of clay tablets deposited within stupas, holy caves, and monastery altars. These clay tablets are generally known as tsa-tsa; a name which Tucci traces back to Sanskrit.

Tsa-tsa are clay impressions made with a metal mould containing the hollowed, reversed image of a deity or sacred symbol. The stamped images are dried in the sun and in some cases fired into hardness.

Especially large tsa-tsa are sometimes colored and varnished and may be empowered by inserting a roll of prayers or mantras in a hollow space at the base. They may be empowered also by printing or writing a mantra on the back.

The production of tsa-tsa is considered a meritorious action which generates an abundant dose of auspiciousness for the creator, his family and the immediate area where the work takes place. Sometimes a pilgrim stays in a place for weeks or months pressing an auspicious number of images. These images are then deposited as offerings on the ledges of a stupa, inside stupa gates, within a holy cave, on prayer wheel niches in the ambulation path of a monastery, or in the hollows of the stone walls carved with prayers lining the route.

A very important use of tsa-tsa is in the empowerment of stupas. Generally stupas are built as receptacles to enshrine relics of great teachers, sacred books, or anything radiating sacred power; they function as reminders of the liberated state. One of the easiest ways of filling a large stupa with sacred objects is through the production of tsa-tsa. The sponsor for the construction of a stupa hires a team of workers to press thousands of tsa-tsa. This is always messy work where everyone gets covered with mud from head to toe. However, being an auspicious action for everyone involved, a great air of cheerfulness pervades the work. There is rhythmic recitation of prayers or singing of work songs to dissipate fatigue and keep the mind in a cheerful state free of tension. To speed the project several different metal moulds are used with the result that the stupa at the end contain a great assortment of images. This type of work is usually done at the end of summer, when there is no further work in the fields and the temperature is not yet freezing.

As the tsa-tsa dry they are placed in piles within the core of the open stupa. Once the stupa is full the door of access is sealed up and a lama may then perform a consecration ceremony. In the area of Shey Gompa very near Leh in Ladakh is a vast field of stupas made of unfired clay bricks. With the passage of the centuries some have collapsed, revealing hollow cores several feet high completely packed with unfired tsa-tsa. Such tsa-tsa were usually smeared with white clay paint as a means of general blessing and empowerment.

The use of tsa-tsa is not confined to areas of Tibetan influence only. In southeast Asian countries such as Thailand and Burma tsa-tsa are extremely valued as amulets and often worn around the neck. Around the Wat Po in Bangkok there are several blocks of tsa-tsa amulet sellers sometimes asking extraordinary sums for amulets produced by famous teachers.

Amulet tsa-tsa are reverentially touched to the forehead as a blessing when someone is ill or departing for some dangerous enterprise. This a way of imbuing the recipient with the purifying power of the depicted deity or the power of the lama who made it.

excerpted from -
Images of Earth and Water: The Tsa-Tsa Votive Tablets of Tibet
by Juan Li, November 11, 1995