21 Air Mandalay - The Golden Flight | Gems from the mines of Mogok Words by Daw Nilar Yee of Mogok (pronounced mo-go), the famed valley of rubies, have probably played a major role in each of Myanmar’s political transformations – from the squabbles of ancient Kings to the imperialism of the British to the present. Mogok itself is a bustling, ethnically diverse city 200 kilometres north of Myanmar’s cultural capital, Mandalay. In its soil, countless rubies lie buried; in its hills, precious gems wait, encrusted in crystalline limestone, to be washed into the earth. Mining in Mogok takes two basic forms – one can assault the rock directly, or sift through the soil of riverbeds in search of stones already fallen. Today, mines are mechanised, and heavy machinery is part of the tedious search for stone. But the work is still dangerous, as deposits often exist down deep crevices that men enter at their peril. Once rubies are found and free, they enter a network of Myanmar rubies are arguably the best in the world. The precious resource is inseparable from the Myanmar identity. The rubies of Mogok (pronounced mo-go), the famed valley of rubies, have probably played a major role in each of Myanmar’s political transformations – from the squabbles of ancient Kings to the imperialism of the British to the present. Rubies Rubies 21 Air Mandalay - The Golden Flight |
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21Air Mandalay - The Golden Flight |
Gems
from the mines of MogokWords by Daw Nilar Yee
of Mogok (pronounced mo-go), the famed valley of rubies,
have probably played a major role in each of Myanmar’s political
transformations – from the squabbles of ancient Kings to the
imperialism of the British to the present.
Mogok itself is a bustling, ethnically diverse city 200 kilometres
north of Myanmar’s cultural capital, Mandalay. In its soil, countless
rubies lie buried; in its hills, precious gems wait, encrusted in
crystalline limestone, to be washed into the earth. Mining in
Mogok takes two basic forms – one can assault the rock directly,
or sift through the soil of riverbeds in search of stones already
fallen.
Today, mines are mechanised, and heavy machinery is part of
the tedious search for stone. But the work is still dangerous, as
deposits often exist down deep crevices that men enter at their
peril. Once rubies are found and free, they enter a network of
Myanmar rubies are arguably the best in the
world. The precious resource is inseparable
from the Myanmar identity. The rubies of
Mogok (pronounced mo-go), the famed valley
of rubies, have probably played a major role in
each of Myanmar’s political transformations
– from the squabbles of ancient Kings to the
imperialism of the British to the present.
RubiesRubies
21Air Mandalay - The Golden Flight |
22 | Air Mandalay - The Golden Flight
traders. Some of the stones are traded in
a quarter of Mogok called Htar Pwe Gone
– gem market hill. The better stones are
sent on to Yangon and Mandalay, where
foreigners come from all corners to see
what Mogok has yielded. Likely as not,
the end up in a place like Phoo Wa Gems
and Jewellery, a small shop in Yangon’s
Bogyoke Aung San Market. The shop’s
single display case is packed with loose
stones. Rubies sit beside jade, sapphires
beside diamonds.
Ko Min Htut Aung, the shop’s owner, says
his mother opened its doors before he
was born; his fate as a gem trader was
never in question. But the trade in gems
has changed over the years. Today, gem
valuation is a matter of careful inspection
and geological inspection rather than the
whim of a local self-pronounced “expert”.
Yangon University hands out “gemology”
degrees the way most university’s hand
out sociology degrees, and Ko Min Htut
Aung himself has just spent two years
working towards one. While appraising
a gem with the naked eye was once
acceptable, and modern techniques
were even ridiculed, today’s customers
demand modern grading methods that
require detailed knowledge of a stone’s
composition.
No one knows this better than U Kyaw
Swar Htun, a gemologist at Stalwart
Gem Lab in downtown Yangon. In what
looks like a high school science lab, he
and his technicians use high-powered
microscopes and other equipment to
judge the carat, fluorescence, origin and
ultimately grade of a stone. U Kyaw Swar
Htun can distinguish a synthetic ruby from
a real one, a heat-treated stone from a
natural one, and, amazingly, a Mogok ruby
from any other.
In grading a stone, gemologists consider the four
Cs – colour, clarity, cut and carat weight. The bright
red of a high-end ruby, known as “pigeon-blood
red” in gemologist argot, is only rarely found
outside Myanmar.
22 | Air Mandalay - The Golden Flight
23Air Mandalay - The Golden Flight |
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