Gems

Gems of Sri Lanka

The gems of Sri Lanka are woven in to his history. The Mahawansa, the ancient chronicle of Sri Lanka too mentioned about gems and jewellery. Indeed, the lord Buddha himself is sad to have had to come to Sri Lanka from India to settle a dispute between two kings, Chulodara and Mahodara, over three gems.

King Solomon is reported to have had gems brought from this island to win the heart of beautiful Queens. The great traveler, Marco Polo, was said to have been so awe struck by a priceless ruby in the possession of the king of srilanka that he recorded it as been span in length, with out a flow, brilliant beyond compare.

Sri Lanka’s become known rathna deepa (the island of Gems). Some of the rarest precious stones in the world are found in abundance in the reach earth under our feet and the hills above us. Among the several world famous gems Sri Lanka’s blue sapphire weighing 466 carats. The largest known sapphire in the world. Weighing in at 19kg was also discovered here. Other famous gems include the blue giant of the orient, weighing nearly 500 carats and the bluebell of Asia, which weights in 400 carats. The renowned Sri Lankan Star sapphire is permanent display at the  Museum of Natural History in New York, but due to an oversight, the stone has been called the star of India.

Throughout history Sri Lanka’s gems and jewelry have adorned the crown jewels of many a royal family. A gem-a 105 carat cat’s eye- discovered in a paddy field in Sri Lanka, gained fame among the royalty of Britain and was successively admired by Edward VII, George V, Edward VIII and Queen Elizabeth.

The process of mining for gems is begun at auspicious time with a short religious ritual. The most common methods of mining are pits and by tunneling. Surface gemming and dredging depends on the location and fine sand. This gravel containing gems is referred to as “illam” and is found just below the alluvial deposits. The rarest gem in the world Alexandrite is found in Sri Lanka.

Gems pits are of two kinds. The shallow ones are well shaped and circular, whereas deep pits are rectangular. To prevent the walls of pits from caving –in scaffoldings are made and the spaces filled with leaves. The water is then pumped out of the pit. If the “illam” vein runs horizontally, tunneling has to be resorted to. Another method of collecting illam is to place wooden poles across the river bed and standing on a pole with a long stick, a person drags the gravelly sand to wards him. This is then collected in buckets.

Either way the gravel is then washed in large circular wicker buckets by immersing them in water and rotating them. This enables the light, ordinary pebbles and sediment to escape, leaving the heavier pebbles behind. Then the basket are held against the sun light and the sorting is carried out. Each illam brings forth a variety of stones. The principle source of Alexandrite, the rarest gem in the world is Sri Lanka it was first pound in the Urals in 1830 and is named after Czar Alexander II who comes of age the day it was found. This stone shines green in natural light but turns raspberry red in artificial light. The cat’s eye is another stone which is considered valuable and rare. It derives its name from fact that a silvery line runs across its greenish-gray surface, giving it a remarkable resemblance to the eye of a cat. the rarest type is the black cat’s eye. Sri Lanka can boast of having 17 varieties of precious and semiprecious stone. The most notable are :-Blue Sapphire, Alexandrite Star Ruby, Yellow Sapphire, star Sapphire, Amethyst, Garnet, Moonstone.