Prayer beads or japa malas are used in many forms of Mahayana Buddhism, often with a lesser number of beads than the Hindu japa malas 108--usually a divisor of 108. In Pure Land Buddhism, for instance, 27-bead rosaries are common.

In Chinese culture such rosaries are named, shu zhu 数珠("Counting Beads"), Fo zhu 佛珠 ("Buddha Beads"), or nian zhu 念珠 ("Prayer Beads"). In Japan they are "Juzu".

In Tibetan Buddhism, often larger malas are used, for example 111 beads. One mala consists of 100 mantras, with 11 extra taken to compensate for errors.

Chinese court beads (Chinese: 朝珠, pinyin cháozhū) also derive from Buddhist prayer beads.