Library

A Visit to the Gem Emporium

by Emily Jane Chang

Last year, Lily, a friend (I have known since we were in high school) had joined her father’s jewellery business, and invited me to go with her to Myanmar to attend the Mid Year Gem Emporium in November. She would be bidding for jade and maybe some rubies and pearls. She said her father had been attending these Gem Emporium auctions since the first one in 1964, and that the Gem Emporiums are held three times a year in March, July and November. This would be the first to be held at Naypyitaw, the new capital.

The only thing I know about the Myanmar gem trade is what Lily has informed me, that no other place in the world could match Myanmar for its gem quality, size and quantity. Its rubies and Imperial Jade found in Mogok and Hpakant mines, sapphires and other gemstones; with the southern coastline and seas also producing pearls of high lustre, size and quality.