1) Introduction: My first serious interest with gems came while backpacking in Myanmar also known more evocatively as "Burma". It was in 1998. I was then exploring the country with two friends sharing the same interest for long days traveling and exotic Asian culture:
During our exploration of Mandalay I met a Burmese poet, an interesting man addicted to gems and gambling. U Phone Kyi was his name. Our encounter alone is a great story and 2 days after we met, he gave me the opportunity to have my first gemological field trip: We took the road to the very remote Mogok gem mining area.
Mogok! A name that filled my dreams from the day I read "La vallee des Rubis", a novel from French writter Joseph Kessel. I was 12 years old and it is the way I got interested in Burma.

"La Vallee des Rubis " de Joseph Kessel (in French)

Going to Mogok was an old dream, and it was about to become true! I visited during that expedition a sapphire mining area in the west of Mogok and had the possibilitiy to spend four days and three nights with Mogok people.
It was wonderful... I was in heaven for nearly one week.
This journey really changed my life: Back to Mandalay I spent several days with U Phone Kyi visiting gems dealers in gem markets and private houses. Our main focus and my first gemological lesson was about star rubies and sapphires. These gemstones were highly valuded by U Phone Kyi. He had endless stories to praise these rare gems and convert me: My old Burmese friend used to tell me that star sapphires would be a good choice for me, as he said, it is a lucky stones for travelers.
It is to remind my old friend and this first wonderful gemological lessons that on the top right of all fieldgemology pages you can discover a beautiful Burmese star sapphire (Stone: Courtesy Diamond, a Burmese lady):
No better choice in my opinion for a website dedicated to gemology and traveling!

On the way back to Yangon we had a three days cruise on the Irrawaddy river. We sailed on a slow wooden merchant boat from Bagan to Pyay. I took there the time to think about my life. Time was going very slowly on the boat and i had nothing else to do other than thinking. I started to think about changing profession to something related with gemstones because gemstones where an obvious link to all the things I got some interest during life: Sciences, history, languages, geography, traveling, adventure...
Arriving in Yangon, I found a book that was about to enforce this idea: "Ruby and sapphire" by American gemologist Richard W Hughes:

"Ruby and Sapphire" by Richard W. Hughes

This book became my traveling companion for the next four years. Three years years working as a tour guide around Europe and Asia saving money, and one year studying gemology...

I came back then regularly to Burma. During one of these visit I met U Kyaw Thaung, a Mogok gem dealer living in Yangon. I was send to visit him by my friend and mentor Ted Themelis who was working on a book about Mogok. I had to collect some old photos to illustrate the book. In fact as the man and his family were really nice I spent all the afternoon with them speaking about gems. Thanks to U Kyaw Thaung I had then the possibility to study gemology, gem cutting and gem business in Yangon with him and at the Gem Genuine Association in Yangon. It was one of the most important experience in my life. For several months I've then shared the life of this Mogok family. Each morning I was studying Gemology at GGA with "Htun Htun", U Kyawn Thaung's nephew and each afternoon I studied gem cutting with his Mogok gem cutter: Moo Lwin Oo.
I had with U Kyawn Thaung, his family and employees the privilege to discover and enjo not only gemology but also the Mogok people culture. Gemology was definitively not only about science and it was wonderful to me!

Studying gemology in Burma from Burmese people was a real first class gemological experience as Burma is truly a gem heaven...

Later after other gemological studies in Bangkok, I returned to Burma as a gemstone buyer for Henry Ho, a well known figure of the gem trade. Henry family, of Burmese Chinese origin, owns the Kandawgyi Palace located near the famous Schwedagon pagoda in Yangon. The Kandawgyi, build over the former British yatch club, is an harmonious mix of Burmese traditional and British colonial architecture. It is surrounded by a beautiful tropical park with many huge trees home of many squirels and birds. As many people staying there while visiting Yangon, I had a great time at the Kandawgyi and it was a perfect base for my buying activities and I do recommend it to the people willing to stay in Yangon: It is just a great place with a special atmosphere.
I still enjoy very much to stay there when I visit Burma for my gemogical expeditions or my simple visit to old friends. I just had wonderful days there among gems and gem people.

We invite you to follow our steps in Burma using the potential given by the free software Google Earth. Just download and install the software, then using our "Burma placemarks" you will get a better idea about the mining areas and gem markets we visited or those for which information is available in the gemological litterature. We recommend you to select the "terrain" option (down left in the "layer" booklet) in order to enjoy a 3D visit.

a) Mogok: Mogok is traditionaly Burma main mining area. It is one of the oldest gem mining area in the world as mining is known there for centuries. It is still a very active place with more than 300.000 people living either in Mogok, Kyatpyin or the surrounding villages. Here is a satelite map realized using Google Earth for you to discover more easily Mogok. I invite you to click on the map and download the fieldgemology Google Earth placemarks and use this fantastic tool to located more easily Mogok, Kyatpyin and their gem mines. Clicking on the placemarks you will find links with photos and info specific to that place: Enjoy!

The Mogok Stone Track is known to have produced probably some of the best rubies, sapphires, spinels and peridots ever mined on Earth. It is also the mother land of many other gemstones as zircon, topaz, aquamarine, goshenite, chrysoberyl, danburite, apatite, sillimanite, kornerupine, enstatite, diopside, lapis lazuli, moonstone, andalousite, fluorite, iolite, scapolite, sinhalite, sphene and several varities of quartz, chalcedony, tourmaline. It is also known to produce several of the rarest gemstones on Earth such as taaffeite, jeremejevite, serendibite, pouddreteite, painite and recently johachidolite: So much to see and to study!

Mogok geology is highly complicated. It is dominated by metamorphism for rubies found in its marbles, metasomatism for its sapphires found near its granitic domes surrounded by pegmatites. Several faults and ultrabasic rocks are also present in the north of Mogok near Momeik where we can find two peridot mines.
Mogok gem diversity and quality, its beautiful mountain landscapes, its old gem traditions are truly unique on our planet and Mogok is seen by many as the gem heaven each gemologist dream to visit on day!

I had the chance to be able to visit Mogok 5 times. It may be sound a lot but Mogok is such a wonderful and interesting place that each time you visit Mogok, it is a new occasion to learn and live something different. I'm still willing to visit this valley again as there are still so much to do there for a passionate gemologist!

Several very interesting book were written about Mogok and I would like to recommend them to people interested by the subject:

	"Mogok, valley of Rubies and Sapphires" by Ted Themelis
	"Gems and mines of Mogok" by Ted Themelis
	"Mogok" by Roland Schlussel, in German
	"Burma Ruby" by S.K. Samuels.

Here are 2 interesting photo gallery from my trips to Mogok, along with Bruno Drera and Anera Zivkovic, two of my former students at AIGS that were willing to discover the Gem paradise.
I wish you will enjoy the visit!

	A visit to Mogok with Bruno and Rosalba Drera (Italy), Dec 2002
	A visit to Mogok with Anera Zivkovic and Henry Ho, March 2004

If Mogok is for sure one of the most wonderful gem place on Earth, Mogok is not the only one place of gemological interest in Burma:

b) Namya: Namya is also located in the Kachin state about 50 kilometers east of Hpakant. This village is an important stop for many truck on the busy Hpakant - Mogaung - Myitkyna road. It is located in a wide swamp covered with jungles. There are found excellent rubies, blue sapphires and some rare wonderful spinels among other gems. I had the possibility to visit first Namya in july 2001 few months after the gem rush following the re-discovery of the area in Jan 2001. I returned in December 2002 for one week to better study the area and its gems.

c) Mong Shu: I have not yet visited Mong Hsu, so I cannot really give a first hand report on this area. But some Burmese friends visiting regularly Mong Hsu told me that the production there was not as good as formerly neverhteless Mong Hsu is still probably the most important ruby mining area in the world.

Rubies are found in Mong Hsu twonship (Shan State) in the marbles of Loi Hsawnshtao hills and in secondary deposits in its surroundings. In Loi Hsawnshtao hills marbles rubies were reported to be associated with green tourmaline, tremolite, actinolite, phlogopite mica, diaspore and more rarely pyrite. Rubies was reported to me to be more abundant in fine to medium grained marbles. It is interesting to notice that spinel, almandine garnet, diopside, green tourmaline, quartz, staurolite are also found in Mong Hsu region.
Rubies beautiful enough naturaly to be used as top quality gems are very rare in Mong Hsu but as huge quantity of stones were mined, several very fine quality unheated Mong Hsu rubies were seen in the market. Most of Mong Hsu rubies is lacking transparency, present bluish zoning and numerous fissures, therefore heat treatment is necessary for most stones to become attractive enough to be used in jewelry.
Heat treatment of ruby using borax as additive was developped very succesfully by Thai gem burners in the early 1990's and its successful application to rough from Mong Hsu turned the area into as a major mining area after 1992. More than 100.000 miners were reported to have worked in the area but after 15 years of heavy mining it seems that the number of miners and the ruby production are on the decrease. The recent arrival of the so called "lead glass treatment" using ruby material from African origin at the end of 2004 has pushed down the prices for the low quality segment of commercial quality heated ruby. It seems to have been a serious blow to the profitability of ruby mining in Mong Hsu already affected by the high prices of energy and the fact that ruby is becoming more difficult to find as mining is going deeper and deeper in the marbles.

d) Momeik Region:
Momeik region is known to produce basaltic type sapphires and to be rich with some diamond alluvial placers.
The Molo pegmatite area, located few kilometers in the north east of Momeik is known to produce "mushroom" type tourmaline, phenakite, aquamarine, goshenite, phenakite, hambergite, petalite
The Namsaka, Khapara, Supra mining area is known to produce very large low quality ruby crystals which can weight several kilos. Its seems that these stones use is limitated to become "paper weights" or museum specimens as these large stones color and transparency seems not to be good enough even after heat treatment for the stones to be used in jewelery.
Closer to Momeik, the Pyin Lon ruby mining area is known to have produced small quantities of fine quality rubies including a 5.25 carats cut ruby of gem quality known as the "Crown of Nawarat"

e) Hpakant: Hpakant and its region in the northern Kachin state is the only really serious Jadeite mining place in the world. This is "Imperial Jade's mother land". I had the chance also to visit it once in 2001, it was truly a great experience as it was also my first real professional field trip experience as I did it as assistant for Ted Themelis.

Here is now a photogallery about Jadeite and its trade in Burma Most of the photos presented in this galleries are from the jade market in Mandalay and the major Jadeite sales in Yangon Emporium:

Jadeite: From mandalay Jade market to Yangon Emporium

f) Myek (Mergui): Mergui and its wild archipelago are known to produce large and beautiful south sea pearls. I visited the archipelago in December 2007 to visit the Orient Pearl Co Ltd cultured south sea pearl farm.If Burma South sea pearl production is very small compared to the volumes coming from Australia, Indonesia and the Philiipines, it has really increased since the end of the 1990's and currently possibly account for about 5% of the world cultured south sea pearl production. I invite you to discover the Mergui archipelago and its cultured pearls with the following Dec 2007 Mergui expedition report:

( Arriving in Mogok, July 2002 )

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