Mogok Legend
brought this faith to the world of fable valley in the north
where beautiful rubies and sapphires lay scattered. Treacherous
swamps and poisonous snakes protected the uninhabited valley.
One day a huge eagle spotted an enormous morsel of bloody-red
meat, swooped down on his prey. Time and again being unable to
make a dint eventually realized that this was not the meat that
he thought but a precious stone. This probably was the first
ruby of the world. Mogok-since than and now is the source of the
world's most fabulous rubies and Sapphires.  The
first European visitor to Mogok in 1838 brief eyewitness account
described mining technique that are still in use today. Situate
128 miles to the northeast of Mandalay with a gem-bearing area
of 1916 sq miles. Residents are mostly Lisu, Shan and Grokha who
make their living predominately by mining, cutting, polishing
and marketing gemstones. There
are now over 1000 mines, with an area of approximately 4,864 sq
km, which are of two main types -tunnel and open-cut.
Small-scale traditional mines, such as lay-bin-gyin (four-sided
pits) are also worked in some places. Mogok also produces numerous gems of lesser quality such as - alexandrite, amethyst, appetite, aqu  amarine, black tourmaline, black John, Danburite,
fluorite, garnet, green tourmaline, lapis lazuli, moonstone, peridot, quartz, rose quartz, spinal, topaz, white sapphire,
zircon. Mogok then and now, is a city of gems, the heart of the
gem-zone and the center of the gem trade. The town has a number
of living examples of the 'rags to riches' success story. Some
are immensely wealthy. These lucky ones are no doubt a source of
inspiration and act as an incentive to the many thousands of
miners who are hoping to strike it rich. The gem stone
transaction and marketing usually take place everyday in a huge
public park call Htar Pwe, where people inspect gems either with
the naked eye or by means of pencil-light torch or lens.
Prospective buyers and sellers sit around on the park benches or
stand in small groups to conduct their business. |
