Myanmar Jade Burmese Jade Jadeite

Jadeite is the real good stuff, nephrite is the other, nephrite is rather dull and of low level.

All jadeite sold today is actually from Myanmar, Chinese jade is nephrite produced since several thousand years.

The stones comes in different colors just like a rainbow, there is lavender, green jade, white, purple, pink and all shades in between. The valuable parameter with is the transparency or translucency the more of this the higher the price. Since Myanmar is the number one in the green stone business no wonder that there are plenty of jade shops and a so called emporiums where the minerals is on auction twice per year. The permanent shopping areas are at the Yangon Bogyoke Market and the Gem Museum in Yangon.

Jadeite mining

is done in northern Burma at the Mogaung area which is north of another famous gem area in the country, that is “Rubyland” at Mogok near the Irrawaddy river between Mandalay and Kachin State in the north where the mines are.

Those places have been under Chinese rule several hundred years ago which is one of the reasons to call jadeite from northern Myanmar still Chinese jade. There was a continuous back and forward between the different ethnic groups, actually all of them have been Chinese anyway in this case from Yunnan.

The Chinese are currently active conquering Myanmar not with the gun but with the dollar. They bought and buy large chunks of land and more than half of Mandalay, the second biggest city in the country is already under Chinese

control. Raw minerals are not far away from Mandalay. In the first half of 2011 the Myanmar government and some Chinese buyers made a huge buy jade deal for more than 100 millions of dollars, which led to the high rise of the local currency and posed real problem since it made all export items too expensive.

Burma jade stones

are usually of high quality and come in various colors including deep green, green jade is most of time the material which fetch the highest prices if its in an excellent composition, structure, texture, transparency and without cracks.

Jade jewelry is for sale at many shops in the country and prices are continuously rising since the “Chinese Stampede” got kicked off, imagine two billion people who want to buy jade sooner or later. Since the days of ancient Chinese and Burmese kings jade and other gems such as rubies, sapphires and other precious stones are exported. The country had a

Jade stones, jadeite

continuous foreign trade with those minerals. This gems are traded biannually at Yangon’s gem fair first held in 1964, currently commercial quantities of high quality jadeite are only coming only from Myanmar.

Jadeite jewelry items

are often smuggled into Thailand from Myanmar, smuggling includes teak goods, antique furniture, antique Buddha Statues and almost everything which is not so big and has a value. Burma jadeite is a very valuable gemstone product, they sometimes

smuggle rough jade and sometimes jewelry made of Myanmar jadeite such as jade bangles and other precious stones. Jade gold is jadeite combined with some gold decoration which often give gorgeous jewelry.

Mae Sot in Thailand is one of the major border crossing where all kind of goods come in. The shallow river which forms the border of the two countries is not holding anyone back. The number of gem dealers hawking jade and gemstones during the daily street market is constantly increasing. Now Prasatwithi Road is often crowded between 11 am and 2 pm and you're as likely to hear Burmese spoken as Thai. The stones are

Mae Sot Jade Shop

found at different places on earth but best quality come from Myanmar. Some of them move from Myanmar to Chanthaburi, then back to Mae Sot. Cutting and polishing is much better in Chanthaburi. Chanthaburi Gem Market is well known in Asia for precious and semi precious stones.

Very special items are Chinese Jade products.

Most of this so called Chinese Jade items come from Myanmar anyway its smuggled into China as raw jade or jade stones and afterwards its processed in various jade workshops in China into jade bangles and other items.

Some material is Chinese origin but this is nephrite. The stones are cut, drilled / carved and polished to reach the final form. Actually all the so called carving is not carving at all, its done by drilling.

Since this is a very hard material its not so easy to handle it. One of the problems jade shops and buyers have with the material is there are no binding parameter to evaluate the mineral by a transparent and objective method.

Singapore Jade Shop at Sands Casino shopping mall.

Burma jade and Jadeite Myanmar Jade, Burmese jade, jadeite,
jade jewelry, raw jade, green jade, jade shops

Most Chinese believe that jadeite

is a “living stone”; since color changes over time, usually the color deepens. Some old Chinese legends support all kind of fairy tales around the green stone. It’s been told that Chinese kings were cured of illness by wearing by wearing jade jewelry and other tell of protective and curative powers.

Natural Jade

Burmese Jade