Myanmar Gems

By Dr.Khin Maung Nyunt

Myanmar's Pearls are noted not only for lustre and beauty but also for their large size. The Myeik (Mergui) area is Myanmar's Large Pearl-producing area. Under the British colonial Government, fishing rights were auctioned every year and the successful bidders always harvestet good profit in fishing out natural pearls.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Today Publishing House
• Release date: Sep 9, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310589973

Book preview

Myanmar Gems

Dr. Khin Maung Nyunt

Cover Design by Today Publishing House

Published by TODAY PUBLISHING HOUSE Ltd. at Smashwords

Copyright February 2008 TODAY PUBLISHING HOUSE Ltd.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other except for brief quotations, not to exceed 400 words, without the prior permission of the publisher.

First Edition February 2008

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CONTENTS

Foreword

Myanmar Amber

The Largest Myanmar Sapphire

Largest Myanmar Pearl

Oriental Jewels13

Jade Culture of the Ancients

History of Myanmar Jade Trade till 1938

King Mindon's Jade Law

Myanmar's Gem Trade in the 15th and 16th Centuries

Anglo-French Interest in the Mogok Ruby Mines, 1752-1932

The Splendid Place of Great Fascination

Ruby Diplomacy

Awards for Myanmar's Quality Gems, Jewellery and Best Trade

Myanmar Pearl

Foreword

The articles contained in this beautifully illustrated book entitled Myanmar Gems were written in local printed media, dailies and monthlies at the time of Myanmar Jade and Gem Emporium held annually at first and half-yearly and quarterly later, in Yangon. Fascinated by accounts of Myanmar's mineral treasures by foreign and local gemmonologists and jewellers found in reports and travelogues of past and present, and captivated by the aesthetic beauty of Myanmar precious and semiprecious stones--rubies, sapphire, jade, garnet, spinel, pedidot, amber, etc etc displayed for auction or bargain sale at such emporia, the writer was seized by an irresistable temptation to write about them and to hail and honour these emporia.

Today Magazine has been kind enough to offer the writer this chance of compiling and publishing these articles in a book form with photographic illustrations, at its own expense and under its own management.

The writer harbours a high intention of a detail research on Myanmar historic gems, crown jewels and jewelleries enshrined in pagodas and monuments, given away as gifts, or stolen, robbed and taken out of the country. But until such work is realised, the present book is to be taken as a modest pioneer which, it is hoped, may appeal to the interest of the readers in general and that of gem enthusiasts in particular.

Dr. Khin Maung Nyunt

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Myanmar Amber

Myanmar with a large extent of primeval forests covering most of her territory is noted for fossil of a wide range of variety. Amber, one of Myanmar's rich minerals, is found in abundance in the Hukaung Valley of the Kachin State in the north of Myanmar. Because of its unique qualities such as extra-hardness, density, texture, lustre and different shades, Myanmar amber has been given a special name burmite.

Some historians opine that Myanmar amber was known to the Chinese from a very early date, probably from the beginning of Christian era and it was exported to the West in ancient times by Phoenician traders. So famous is the burmite that many explorers in the last two centuries, English explorers like Hannay in 1936 and Griffith in 1837 led scientific expeditions to the Hukaung Valley to see the extraction of amber by the natives. The first geologist who visited amber mines in 1892 was Noetling. In 1922 another geologist Murray Stuart visited the mines and he reported that amber-bearing deposits belonged to Eocene Age. F.A. Buther and T.D.A. Cockerall studied the insects enshrined in amber and they confirmed Eocene Age.

Chibber, another noted geologist who visited the mines in 1930, was quite impressed by the special qualities of burmite. In his book entitled Mineral Resources of Burma (Myanmar), he devotes one whole chapter to amber. He writes about the physical properties of Myanmar amber as follows:

Burmite is distinguished from many other amber-like resins by its superior hardness and greater toughness, which render it suitable for carving and turning. It varies in colour from pale-yellow to dull-brown. Fourteen varieties of amber are recognized locally, depending mostly on colour and shade of the material. For instance, amber of the colour of flame, honey, sessamum, horse-hoof, light-red all bear separate names. In dark or black like the Sicilian variety, Semetite, it possesses a strong fluorescence particularly in ultraviolet light; but even in daylight a strong bluish tinge appears when viewed at under a certain angle, and sometimes it is so strong that fine yellow specimens appear to be of an ugly greenish colour. The cloudy variety so common in the Baltic does not occur in Burma. Its hardness varies from 2.5—3 and specific gravity from 1.034 to 1.095. By friction it becomes electrified and retains its electricity for some time.

The method of amber-mining used by the native workers is simple and primitive. Amber mines are shallow wells, about three feet six inches square and forty-five-feet deep the most. Two, three or four men work at each pit. They dig underground with a hoe. Debris is carried up in baskets by a pulley attached to a bamboo tripod positioned over the mouth of the pit. They look for pieces of amber in the debris. Deep pits are lined with bamboo barricades. Water wells out in 40-foot pits and water is bailed out by hand. When a hard sand bed is reached, digging is stopped because they assume that there in no amber under it. Local miners work at the pits only after the harvest and their working period is about three months in the open season. They work from 8 am to 4 pm everyday.

Because Myanmar amber is harder and denser than Prussian amber you can cut it and carve it easily, and when polished it takes an excellent sheen. For many generations the Kachin people have been using their domestic implements for cutting amber. Their implements are saw, Kachin dah (big knife), file and sandpaper. Rough amber is cut into pieces of required size by a locally made saw. Pieces are made into required shape with a knife. With a small flat file the final shape is produced. Either sandpaper or some kind of prickly leaves are used for polishing.

Since ancient times, Myanmar amber has enjoyed pride of place among gems used in the jewellery of Myanmar national races. Amber necklaces, earrings, buttons, brooches and other trinkets for ornament are fashionable among Chin, Kachin, Shan and Bamar women. Amber jewellery is much appreciated and valued by Chin women. It is the Chin custom to present an amber necklace to the bride by her groom. Amber is included in the list of royal gems used by Myanmar kings. In one of the grandiloquent forms of courtly addresses to Myanmar kings, the kings was addressed as Your August Majesty, the royal possessor of gold mines, silver mines, ruby mines, sapphire mines, amber mines, blue vitriol mines, white elephants, pink elephants, and striped elephants, etc. Amber was used in decorating royal regalia. On display in the National Museum, Yangon, is one royal receptacle in the shape of brahminy duck (Hamsa) which was used by the last two Myanmar kings, Mindon and Thibaw. It was carved out of a single piece of deep-red burmite.

Sacred objects such as Buddha images, figurines, relic caskets, rosaries and votive objects are made of Myanmar amber. Mandalay and Mogaung are the centres for making amber ornaments. Amber earrings of cylinder shape of extra size were worn by Myanmar women in days of yore. Some excavated from archaeological sites are on display at the Archaeological Museum at Bagan.

In the British colonial time a big piece of amber was discovered in the Hukaung Valley mines. It weighs 33.6 pounds. This burmite (Myanmar amber) of superlative size, now on display at the Natural History Museum in London, is the world's largest piece of amber.

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The Largest Myanmar Sapphire

Among countless varieties of gemstones which our Mother Earth gives us for ornament as well as for scientific use, diamond, ruby and sapphire are classified by gem- mologists as precious stones and the rest are all semi-precious. The criteria for categorizing precious stones are density, gravity, luminosity and exquisite beauty. So by these criteria diamond comes first, ruby second and sapphire third. But in terms of hardness sapphire slightly exceeds that of ruby.

Sapphire is a blue transparent variety of corundum (q.v.) of native alumina, much valued as a gemstone, defines the Encyclopaedia. Essentially it is the same mineral as ruby, from which it differs chiefly in colour. The colour of sapphire varies from palest blue to deep indigo. The highly esteemed tint of sapphire is that of the blue cornflower.

Geologists say that the blue of sapphire is due to the presence of oxides of chronium, iron or titanium. An organic origin has also been suggested. Sapphires occur with many other gemstones, in the form of pebbles or rolled