Prayer beads are traditionally used to keep count of the repetitions of prayers, chants or devotions. They are used by followers of four major world religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam.

There seem to be basically three uses for prayer beads:

1. Repetition of the same devotion a set (usually large) number of times. This is the earliest form of prayer beads (the Japa Mala) and the earliest Christian form (the prayer rope).
2. Repetition of several different prayers in some pattern (the usual Western Christian form), possibly interspersed with meditations.
3. Meditation on a series of spiritual themes (Islam and the ).

Buddhism

For main article, see Buddhist prayer beads

Prayer beads or Japa Malas are also used in many forms of Mahayana Buddhism, often with a lesser number of

Christianity

The Desert Fathers (third-fifth century) used knotted ropes to count prayers, typically the Jesus Prayer ("Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner"). The invention is attributed to St Anthony or his associate St Pachomius in the fourth century.

Catholic Christians use the Rosary as Prayer beads. The Rosary (its name comes from the Latin "rosarium," meaning "crown of roses"), is an important and traditional devotion of the Roman Catholic Church, combining prayer and meditation in sequences of ten "Hail Marys," each sequence being called a decade. A complete Rosary involves

Many Eastern Christians use a prayer rope instead. Old Believers use special prayer rope made of leather, called lestovka. This type of prayer beads is not used now by the Russian Orthodox Church.

According to the , "The rosary is conferred upon the Greek monk as a part of his investiture with the mandyas or full monastic habit, as the second step in the monastic life, and is called his 'spiritual sword'." Monks use the prayer rope, archimandrites and bishops use beads.

In the mid-1980s the Anglican rosary or Christian prayer beads format was developed as an alternative to the Catholic rosary for Protestants. It consists of 33 beads (representing the 33 years of the life of Christ) arranged in groupings of symbolic significance.

The contemporary , invented by Swedish Bishop Emeritus Martin Lönnebo, is a set of 18 beads, some round and some elongated, arranged in an irregular pattern. Each one has its own significance as a stimulus and reminder for meditation, although they can also be used for repetitive prayer.

Hinduism

Earliest use of prayer beads can be traced to Hinduism, where it is called a Japa Mala and has beads. Japa is the repeating of the name of God or a mantra, while Mala itself is a Sanskrit term meaning 'garland' or 'necklace'. The most common materials used for making the beads is Rudraksha seeds (used by Shaivites) and Tulsi stem (used by Vaishnavites). They are used for repetition of a mantra, other forms of Sadhana (spiritual exercise) and as an aid to meditation.

Islam

Muslim prayer beads, called tespih, are used to recite the 99 Names of God. A tespih may have 99 or 33 beads (which would be counted three times), and terminates with an elongated bead called an imam (meaning "priest").

Sikhism

Sikhs use a prayer string made of wool with 108 knots instead of beads.

Gebetskette Chapelet 数珠 чотки