Pigeon Blood Rubies from Burma documentary of Patrick Voillot

long before the Buddha walked the earth the northern part of Burma was said to be inhabited only by wild animals and birds of prey one day the biggest and oldest Eagle in creation flew over a valley on a hillside shown an enormous morsel of fresh meat bright red in color the Eagle attempted to pick it up but its claws couldn't penetrate the blood-red substance try as he might he couldn't grasp it after many attempts at last he understood it wasn't a piece of meat but a sacred and peerless stone made from the fire and blood of the earth itself the stone was the first ruby on earth and the valley was mocha [Music] I'd like to show you this ruby necklace so rubies are very beautiful they're pigeons blood which is the rarest color of Ruby they come from Burma Myanmar the land of golden rubies situated at the Tropic of Cancer between the Indian subcontinent and East Asia has a population of 44 million predominantly Buddhist [Music] in the capital city of Rangoon the great shwedagon pagoda is believed to have been built in Buddha's time the gold and precious stones with which it is covered are the offerings of devotees over the centuries 5448 diamonds including one of 76 carats and two thousand three hundred and seventy seven of the finest color rubies adorn inspire most of these stones come from the remote mountainous regions of the north near the Chinese border in the Shan Plateau the red stone has been extracted since prehistoric times along the Ruby route lies the ancient city of Pugin with its plane of a thousand pagodas its foundation is believed to originate from a prophecy of Buddha who declared one day 651 days following my ascension into nirvana a great Kingdom will rise up on this spot from the 11th century onwards no less than 13 thousand temples pagodas and stupas have been built around the Irrawaddy River seven centuries later a third of the Royal City was swept away in a great flood diverse offerings to Buddha were placed in the stupas and temples and these sometimes included rubies certain gem dealers and Pugin offer stones that supposedly come from the ruins of these temples that are forever being rebuilt despite their lack of knowledge they assert with confidence that these stones come from Magog the land of the Ruby this quality [Music] in a temple out of sight of curious eyes observed only by their God they reveal their treasures [Music] patient blows no you know what is pigeon blood it's a biscuit oh yes Clara from Big Stone difficult to find stone like that but I think that's too expensive for me no too beautiful to be true and far too inexpensive for their large size these stones take in many an inexperienced buyer the Ruby route passes through Mandalay founded in the mid 19th century by King Minh Minh here sculptors carve statues of Buddha out of white marble and it's this same white marble that by a quirk of nature serves as a matrix for the red gems the Burmese King consulted an Indian woman astrologer to find out what the future held for him his royal rule continued despite his imposed exile by the British in 1885 you have two very important lifelines you will go on a successful journey to mugga where you will find precious thing to help you succeed I'm going to give you something that will bring you good fortune a few kilometers away from macaque in the village of Pallonji begins the real Ruby trading where only small stones are exchanged or sold between miners and dealers [Music] some of the stones have already been cut in order to better display their effect like the star rubies whose tiny needles of titanium oxide catch and reflect back light in the form of a six race star gem dealing is mainly carried out by women here this stones worth 40,000 kids the chemists say I choose the soil where I want to look for stones this stone was found through Septimus Oriole at the foot of the privately operated mines women and children search for stones in accordance with a kennis a custom which allows tailings to be searched by anyone with all stones found becoming the property of the finder who is free to sell them without paying anything to the mine owner or to the government under the British rule this practice was restricted to women only any man who so much has bent down to touch a stone on the ground without having a license was subject to imprisonment James found in this way are often small in size and are stored for safekeeping inside the finders mouth this practice however also enables the theft and illegal sale of large numbers of stones on a site where supervision is not so tight a miner can drop a ruby into the tailings area where the kehna say is practiced the stone will then be accidentally found by a kennis a woman accomplice who now legally owns it [Laughter] so this is the police min - is a minor he's here to make his fortune mines in the land are protected by spirits the local inhabitants are very superstitious and believe strongly in the super nasty [Music] mintu makes offerings to these spirits in order to gain their favor they are represented by a coconut surrounded by bananas and are called nuts he dreams of finding a large ruby like in the famous legend of the old woman who on a day of heavy rain after having made her offering sees a mass of fallen earth on a path in front of her and discovers at her feet a ruby as big as a pigeon safe [Music] this spirit worship existed long before the arrival of Buddhism in Bihar and one can count today 37 different gnats or spirits who are legendary heroes offerings are made to gain their favor or to appease them they are celebrated during the net pew festival and one of the main characters is the net Kadam or female spirit who attempts to seduce the deities with her frenzied dances watched by a crowd of fascinated onlookers this character who is often a man dressed up as a woman gives advice on everyday matters as well as medical and spiritual questions this animistic cult is very particular to my law the dwelling place of the gnats is an ancient volcano near Pugin mount popa three years ago this gaping hole was a peaceful village one day a man dug a well and found some rubies the village was dismantled and relocated frenzied digging began and these gemstone bearing deposits transported here over thousands of years by the streams and rivers now diverted the local name for this soil is biome after being raped and Doug the biome is transformed into mud with water collected from the monsoon rains and this precious mixture is then pumped up to a separating facility to obtain the gem bearing gravel which could make the fortune of the mine owner and his employees the miners receive food but their pay is based on a percentage of their findings at dusk the water is turned off under the watchful eye of the supervisor the miners pick out the biggest stones the ruby is rare one isn't found every day and exceptional stones are even rarer these smaller stones are collected farther down below they are transported in pans to a sorting table where the work takes place under vigilant guard around 60 million years ago at the time when the Himalayas were formed limestone impurities rich in aluminium and oxygen were subjected to high temperatures due to magma rising up to the Earth's surface through faults this phenomenon gave birth to the Rubies of Magog through the activity of atmospheric agents the marble which serves as a matrix disintegrates the thickest most resistant Ruby crystals are washed away by the streams and rivers and deposited in natural hollows in the valleys these alluvial deposits will become the zone of predilection for gem seekers in Magog gem markets operate in the morning and evening the larger stones are bought and sold amongst the local inhabitants and this trading is again mainly carried out by women the hour is well chosen as the pink hue lights of dawn and dusk show off the red color of the stone which is further accentuated by the brass display plates at the Ruby market a further danger awaits the inexperienced buyer the spinel a stone very similar to the Ruby in its color and chemical composition and which is found in the same deposits its former name was the ballast Ruby the black princess Ruby set into the royal crown of England next to the Cullinan dye is nothing more than a superb spinoff in McGuirk fortunes can be easily made as gem barring alluvia from the nearby mountains inundate the valley when it rains the houses in soil are completely inundated during heavy rains you can find stones everywhere in the street women who haven't managed to sell all their stones at the market trade with bigger dealers like dr. Sun on these people are some of them gem traders by themselves some of them brokers they brought other people's don't to sell here and some of them - he found the stones in their minds to come and sell here you me I buy I have a mind I'd have - and then they work for me sometimes I grew them and if I find rubies here like people like you who came here I said sometimes I bother from these people the dealers employ brokers not only to sell their stones but also to provide them with information on what valuable stones have recently appeared on the market and the price is bid for them so that they can make their own offers in line with this how much 8,000 kids when I was like they say in a small village with the payment of 450 chats a month I have to treat the illnesses including the accidents in the mines and why miner came to me with the accident after I treated him he invited me to put a share in his mind after one man he found a stone at what three hundred thousand chats for me it's a dramatic difference huge difference in money because I can earn only fifty four fifty per month and then only in one month it was three hundred thousand chats so difference that attracts me in fact me so I went to his mind and became a minor after death that virus infected me from that time to Disney the miners hold the white marble out of the pit in order to break it up in daylight each block may contain the precious mineral this task is entrusted to a man of confidence it's very beautiful and very good quality too making their way along galleries that sometimes stretch for several hundred meters the miners finally reached the layers of marble they are now at the very spot where the world's finest rubies are formed a treasure just within their reach but which they may only contemplate for a brief moment before it disappears to distant lands to lay in a permanently locked safe or better still around the neck of a beautiful woman a great deal of marble has to be broken up in order to find stones this is what's known as a primary deposit the concentration of gems here is much less than in the buy on soil the dust in these non-ventilated galleries doesn't prevent the practicai of the miners from detecting the slightest glimpse of red the ruby is the world's most precious stone more precious even than the diamond the crowned heads of Europe have never failed to set a red stone into the front of their crowns in memory of the suffering and the blood of Christ for a 20 carat stone of the best color the price can be astronomical even if the stone isn't 100 percent pure a single find of this kind can sometimes enable the mine owner to cover his investment for several years but many months may go by without such a discovery being made how much is it Oh distance we sold 1.3 million I get 90 million dead but yes yeah its usual to find season Boudia not very usual there once in a year one in six months not every time not every day sometimes it takes three years to find a very beautiful one [Music] dynamite is also used to break up the host rock more quickly no detonators here however the explosives are all of local manufacturer but this method of mining is dangerous both for the men and for the Rubies which are sometimes damaged during the explosion [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] after having been meticulously inspected the blocks of marble obtained from this form of mining are thrown away into the tailings at the foot of the mining site in the KIAC song Valley the can assay women and children are now free to search for stones in these discarded blocks the doctor sometimes buy stones from them [Music] ladies can you show me what you've got there do you have any small stones did you find those today yes we found them together how much give me a good price I'll give you 1,500 no we can't sell them for that not even for 2,500 I hope you find some good stones and sell them and make a lot of money so you would have any digs [Music] yeah that's the main thing thank you very much [Music] there's more chance of finding large stones in this Kennison area than in the alluvial deposits where the SIVs have already captured all the bigger jams [Music] with a simple hammer blow the miners can come across an exceptional Ruby but these discoveries are very few and far between [Music] when we go to the deputy we are trying to find a James Bond in Magog the miners don't heat treat the stones a process that is used to permanently improve the quality of the color and thus greatly increase the stones worth the miners are superstitious and think this sort of artifice will bring bad luck upon the mine and their family only the dealers use this process muggle rubies are in fact not easy to treat their internal inclusions are often not very heat-resistant a solution a scenario a martini net LRS you know Mima to obtain the finest stones we use a product that comes from another country Thailand I can't reveal its name of course that's our little secret and we can't show you how it's used color is of crucial importance in a rubies value when the stone is heated becomes very bright and luminous in order to obtain a precious stone it has to be heated for 45 minutes the stone then has a more attractive aspect this increases its value at first the stone is very dark but after heating its color becomes much lighter than before the rubies of this region have strong red fluorescence under ultraviolet light and are peerless in the world of gems there are several different colors and the finest and most sought-after is the pigeons blood the second is yung twee or rabbit's blood which is slightly darker and third is a deep hot pink named Bo or preference of the British fourth is a light pink color termed that Lee cows eat or bracelet quality and finally at the bottom of the scale is the dark red color termed kallingal which means even an Indian would cry it's mainly these lower grade colors that are heat treated in order to upgrade their quality these small stones are cut here the gem cutters cut an enormous quantity of stones every day and this work demands great technical skill as well as extremely good eyesight the hidden stone is stuck onto a bamboo peg with adhesive wax this style of cutting hasn't changed for generations the machines are manual the peg is held in place by a wooden hand piece to enable precise determination of the cutting angle of the facets after each cut the gem cutter inspects his work in this town gem cutting is a trade passed down from father to son and one that demands great savoir faire because not only must the cuts be perfect but the cutting angles must be determined with extreme precision so as to avoid inclusions and achieve optimum shape for the best color these stones cut and magog are intended for the local market the jewelry mounted here is typically Burmese the jeweler's transform 24 karat pure gold into a 22 carat alloy which is harder after melting and rolling the metal they make the settings the jewelers also use blue sapphires which are a gem quality of the mineral corundum like the Ruby though less rare it's blue tint is obtained through small quantities of titanium oxide and iron burmese women like to look attractive they like to display and safeguard their wealth in the form of jewellery which is easily transportable they also use traditional cosmetic products like Tanaka which beautifies and protects their skin this paste is made from grinding the bark of a tree branch and mixing it with water [Music] around five o'clock in the morning even before the mines wake up the monks begin their rounds of the villages with their begging bowls it's forbidden for them to work and they seem to observe with a sort of otherworldly detachment the excitation caused by the Ruby in order to become a true Buddhist young Burmese boys must go through a period of initiation this is called the novitiate [Music] [Music] [Applause] for an entire day they are dressed in princely clothes to resemble prince siddhartha gautama who became the buddha and are led by their families on the backs of elephants to the temple where they will have to obey the monastic rules and abandon all worldly possessions [Music] all Burmese people spend a few weeks or even years in a monastery which they are free to leave at any moment they must respect three fundamental rules the giving up of all personal possessions respect of all forms of life and celibacy [Music] all this provides a striking contrast to the quest for precious stones and the fever's inspires as is illustrated by the legend of gum Yamamoto man and OVA Romania go satellite the Challenger Bach found the roof and gave it its name a crack in the stone split the piece one piece was presented to the king and the other was sold by a merchant to the Emperor of China this latter made a gift of it to the Burmese sovereign who noticed that the two pieces fitted together perfect curious at this fraud he ordered in jammu and all the inhabitants of his village to be burned alive it is said that on the side of the road where the tragedy took place no more rubies are to be found [Music] the miners make even more offerings to their God than to their former king certain Buddha's sit enthroned on a mountain of rubies this desperate desire to obtain grace through their devotion sometimes leads them to offer exceptional pieces like this 50 karats sapphire statuette but just as in any other community there are always cheats who offer fake stones this Ruby Buddha for example is nothing more than painted glass you can't trick a god he'll give you back tenfold what you have given him the choice is yours [Music] thanks to this offering made to Buddha his teachings and his followers you have the possibility of attaining the state of Nirvana in life donations are a good action for everyone and your wishes will come to life you earn merit in maga rubies sapphires and other treasures are the subject of everyone's conversation in the morning afternoon and evening and at night the subject of everyone's dream man's passion for precious stones fueled along the centuries in this region still burns as strongly as ever just behind those caves that enormous stone was found lots of stones [Music] saya Doh OVA Tokido is well aware that his pagoda is perched on a peak of ruby bearing white marble in the center of the most prosperous mining site in the region where the biggest stones are found his pagoda called kee opiate tarts his legendary and venerated by all legend has it that an Indian King Ashoka in the 4th century BC sent missionaries to build 84,000 pagodas and water wells throughout the world six years ago the ambassador of Nepal came here and recognized the pagoda as being the last one missing from his census count it's an enchanted place a serpent once spent several months meditating at the top of the pagoda and then an enormous swarm of butterflies settled on the same spot completely covering the top of the temple despite it being formally prohibited men have dug under the rocky peak to extract rubies from the sacred hill in the cracks and crevices formed by the groundwater the monk notices fresh traces of searching the stone fever causes them to brave all dangers it's here as well as being out of bounds to gem seekers an old legend surrounds this underground site it is believed to be jealously guarded by dragons that's it people think that's a t-4 dragon yes I believe not scientifically in my olden days inside some broken and very big hole that has spinel inside inside that the people from here believe very powerful dragon and then that's I got the evidence dragon live under the because these stones these gems from the minds taking again and again we found inside this famous dragon's tooth is nothing more than the fossilized tooth of a now extinct herbivore some time ago some villagers found a tooth like this in a mine they sealed off the entrance with a boulder for fear that the dragon would come out and wreak havoc on their village even in macaque it isn't easy to view fine stones often their rich owners keep them locked away out of sight and only reveal them to professionals or to people that completely trust here you will see very exceptional things [Music] [Music] [Music] a 42 carats sapphire of the finest color this Ruby Vidya comprising 22 6 carat each pigeons Bloodstones his priceless certain big jewelers spent years trying to match up to stones of the same color while this set has 22 identical ones and of the finest hue [Music] according to legend a group of bandits banished by the Burmese king found some rubies in the valley and offered them to the King in exchange for his pardon this land belonged to the Shan Prince but the King seeing such treasure simply annexed the region compensating the hapless Prince with a small piece of his own land far less rich in gems [Music] in the 16th century the King decreed that all stones above the value of two thousand rupees were property of the crown any failure to comply was punishable by death it is because of this harsh rule that at the time of Upper Myanmar's annexation by the British in 1885 a large part of the population had deserted the area during the colonial period mining was carried out by the Burma Ruby mines limited but without great success [Music] today independent miners lease concessions from the Mayan mah gems Enterprise the country's largest gem producers are the government through this state-owned company and the Army through the union of Myanmar economics holding limited a public company financed and controlled by the military thus ironically the army is a competitor of the government that it controls these military mines our mechanized and used technical equipment such as bulldozers for extracting the stones the biown is blasted with jets of water at tremendous pressure the gemstone bearing mud slides down into the separating facility which is closely guarded the soldiers do the sorting with the naked eye without the help of optical equipment the daily production will be sent to Rangoon to be sold at the gem Emporium which is held by annual [Music] more than 50% of this region's total production of rubies dodges government taxes and leaves the country illegally in the streets and markets of Rangoon one often meets sellers proposing stones to tourists the stones are mounted on a yellow metal that isn't [Music] that's a big stone how much did you pay for it yeah $500 that's not very much forest on this size I'm looking to see if there are any inclusions or something which tells us that the stone is face I'm sorry to disappoint you but it's a fake that's often the case when you buy in the street that's unfortunate we're leaving tomorrow you brought a stone worth around $5 it's what's called a French diamond it's a stone made by the vallenari process it's a synthetically positive and no sound would be something in France at the end of the 19th century Monsieur of Illinois invented this industrial process that sniffs of alchemy after calcination of powdered aluminum oxide enriched with chromium to give it its red color we obtained the raw material of the Ruby this alumina is saved and stocked a ruby germ is prepared and placed in an oxy-hydrogen furnace at a temperature of two thousand fifty degrees centigrade in an airtight container a tiny hammer knocks the alumina powder into the flame which melts it it's crucial to maintain the temperature constant because the difference of a single degree alters the crystallization the melted powder drops onto the germ and initiates the crystallization this is where alchemy begins what nature takes millions of years to achieve man will take only 16 hours to create a synthetic vinay Ruby a cut with a saw prevents the crystal from shattering by freeing the tension caused by super cooling these perfect replicas of nature are used in fancy jewelry making watchmaking as well as in lasers and precision instruments each year two tons of rubies leave this factory which is the only one of its kind in France and no synthetics here at the biannual gem Emporium where the biggest rubies of the official production are offered up for sale [Music] few few deals and big stones she comes to these auctions to find the stones that interest her [Music] the Ruby is extremely resistant and durable only the diamond can scratch it [Music] the Hindus considered it to be the most important stone and named it in Sanskrit brought Niraj the queen of the precious stones a few years ago a 52 carat pigeons blood ruby of exceptional quality was sold here for six million dollars to a Chinese buyer the buyers are mainly Burmese or ties the reserve price is determined by an expert whew whew has made her bid any more bids surprise 15200 unfortunately the stone will be leaving in other hands I think you should try it on put it around your neck to see what it looks like nearly bezel the rubies are pigeons blood which is the finest color for rubies and tells us that that Burmese which is a guarantee of excellence [Music] the Burmese merchants often say that seeing a pigeons blood ruby is like seeing the face of God [Music] you you

Channel: Voillot Patrick

Views: 499,157

Rating: 4.7831326 out of 5

Keywords: documentary, gemmologist, gemstone, precious stones, gemmology, patrick voillot, pierre précieuse, pierres précieuses, jewelry, stone, movie, tv, frenchtv, jeweler, prices, million dollars, expedition, mine, mining, Place Vendôme, Pigeon Blood, Burma, rubies, ruby, Mogok, Mandalay, Myanmar, Joseph Kessel, The Valley of Rubies, Rangoon, Buddhist Temples, Shwedagon Pagoda, diamonds, Kings of Burma, Emporium, Yangon, Fred

Id: Ndq_fP4I4sU

Length: 52min 3sec (3123 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 12 2019