Visiting Sri Lanka

You always hear about rubies and blue sapphires from Thailand and India but for violet, orange, yellow and green sapphires go to Sri Lanka. You can see all the colors in between as well as stars and eyes – wow, eye candy. 

A group of a dozen of us from the GIA Alumni Association in Hong Kong organized a 5-day trip to that gem of an island together with any family who wanted to come as well. I brought my 7-year-old son. 

After about 6 hours on an airplane, we arrived in Colombo the capital, to stay the night. The next morning, we piled into a bus and off we went. First stop Ratnapura, in the very center of the rather large island. That same afternoon we were in a jungle examining an operating mine. All it was, was a hole, perhaps 3 meters in diameter and 25 meters straight down. In the center there was a wooden structure which acted as both a ladder to climb up and down, and an anchor for a rope pulley mechanism. Orange mud covered everything and was piled everywhere. 

When the invitation was extended to see what was at the bottom of that hole, my son could not resist and, of course, I could not let him go alone. Climbing down was OK - what was at the bottom? More mud, oh, and a tunnel running off diagonally. This one was maybe a meter wide at the most and perhaps 5 meters long which meant you had to crawl. Two young men were working in the tunnel, one at the tunnel face scooping mud into pails made from car tires, and the other shifting the pails out and hooking them to the pulley to be hoisted up to ground level. There were a few light bulbs, and the air was dank. These guys were covered in mud as they had been toiling away down there for the last three hours on their hands and knees. What came to mind was those scenes in the old movies of prison escapees digging tunnels to escape. Did we see any gemstones? Not a chance - everything was mud. 

The climb back up was a seriously slippery challenge and we both required a full hose down upon emerging. It was an experience - but take it from me, give it a pass if you are ever invited to consider it. It is at the ground level where everything happens. The mud from the tunnel winds up in a water washing machine which dissolves all the mud and releases the stones – if there are any. Only later did I come to understand that they did not expect there would be any significant yield in this particular mine yet, as they were tunneling towards and had not yet reached the gravel beds for which they were searching. It was a new mine. 

The next destination was much more interesting. It was steaming hot, and we pulled up, in the bus, next to a river. It was quite wide at about 40 meters, but at its deepest it was only up to my knees. Beautifully cool clean refreshing water. Time for a swim. Just up-river from where we entered there was another kind of mining operation. This one in the middle of the water in the river. 

There was one man operating a swinging gantry with one weighted end and a basket at the other on a long bamboo pole. The basket was lowered to a couple of guys who were deeper in water up to their shoulders. They filled the basket with alluvial gravel from the up-stream side of the depression or bowl in the river that they had created over time. The gantry man would then maneuver the basket up and over to a group of sorters in shallow water. The basket was dumped and went back for more, while the sorters carefully picked through the recovered gravel. Every now and again there was a shout as one of the sorters found something of value and the mine owner, presumably, shuffled down the shore to make an examination and to take possession. When the sorters finished, they dumped the tailings back into the river on the shallow side, onto the ledge they had created over time and on which my son and I were swimming. In this manner, slowly and surely, the mine which was a bowl in the river moved upriver basket by basket as the gravel was scooped up on one side and deposited on the other after sorting.

As we floated on our backs cooling off, we dug our hands into gravel to keep from drifting off with the current. We soon noticed little flakes of various colors in the gravel in our hands. It was one of those “OOOH!” moments. We then began to fish around some more and soon began to fill our pockets. When we emptied our pockets later we found an impressive collection of various shards and pebbles of all kinds of colors. There were corundum, spinel, quartzes and garnets of all shades. Just like that. Of course, there was nothing large enough to be of any value but when put in a glass vial with water they made an impressive souvenir - one which remains in my son’s possession to this day. 

After an overnight in an inn and some delicious food, we woke very early to go to the central trading market. There we watched as men milled about haphazardly in knots examining and haggling over the latest finds from all the mining activity in the area. Their equipment included loupes of course, but every one of them also carried a strong source of concentrated light. As they stood around in groups, we could see them holding stones up to the sun to peer at them, shining their lights on them and holding them up to their eyes to use their loupes. Offers were made surreptitiously with hand signals until such time as the seller was satisfied no more offers were coming. He then identified the successful bidder. This was all rough material which would then be taken for further processing. These men had to be the very best experts. 

On the last day in Colombo, we arranged a special tour at the National Museum of Colombo specifically oriented towards the collections of Gem materials. They exhibit the spectacular Crown Jewels of the last King of Kandy as well as rare specimens of color, size and clarity. We were also shown some rare items that cannot be viewed by the public because we were such an enthusiastic group. We were shown so much that I was overwhelmed by it all. When you are shown beautiful and rare faceted and cabochon gem after gem of every variety and in unbelievable sizes you wind up with a kind of shell shock. 

My overall impression was with the variety. The Jewelry industry has a propensity to cater to what the general populace is familiar with. Diamonds, emeralds rubies and blue sapphires. The fact is there is an incredible variety of materials out there to work with. In the corundum species alone, there are Rubies (red), Padparadcha (Orange), blue, green, yellow and violet sapphires not to mention the eyes and the stars. The clear honey colored chrysoberyl cat’s eyes were mesmerizing too. I have never seen such vibrant red spinel, another material that occurs there in many colors. What a fantastic trip! No small part of the great experience were the people and the food. It is a colorful place with both beaches and mountains, and opportunities to get close to and observe rare marine and terrestrial wild animals. I highly recommend it.