Do you mean cane beads? If so, they are beads made by placing many bead rods together to form a design at the end. Once fused, the new rod is sliced and the resulting beads have a design formed by the combination of the rods.
Prayer beads or japa malas are used in many forms of Mahayana Buddhism. They usually contain either the 108 beads of the Hindu japa mala or a divisor of 108. In Pure Land Buddhism, for instance,...