Turquoise in Tibet, Mongolia and China: What a 1915 Study Recorded
Outside the American Southwest and Persia, the other great turquoise culture was in the high country of Tibet and its neighbors. In 1915 the geologist Joseph E. Pogue collected what travelers and scholars had recorded about it. This article presents that record in his words, with page numbers. Where Pogue describes his own time, he means 1915.
Tibet's standard gem
Writing in 1915, Pogue reported:
“Turquois not only finds wide application in Tibet today, but it has been known to the inhabitants of that country since remote times.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 77 [1]
Pogue (1915) quoted Berthold Laufer:
“As jade is the recognized jewel of the Chinese, so turquois is the standard gem of the Tibetans.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 77 [1]
According to Pogue (1915, p. 77), most turquoise used in Tibet was of middling quality, greenish, and in larger pieces seamed and mottled with black matrix. [1]
Matched stones, headdresses and dowries
On Tibetan mosaic earrings, Pogue (1915) quoted Laufer:
“The requirement of these mosaics is that the stones shall be well matched in color, resulting in a harmonious color arrangement. With this end in view, Tibetan women gather turquoises during many years, till they have the desired colors in the required number of stones.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 78 [1]
On the Pirak headdress of Spiti, Pogue (1915) quoted the traveler Paske:
“Usually a Pirak forms part of the dowry given to the bride by her parents, and the value of the ornaments varies according to the means and position of the family.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 80 [1]
Turquoise as money
Pogue (1915, p. 81) reported that turquoise passed as currency in many parts of Tibet, and quoted Rockhill's advice that travelers from China should carry turquoise beads, which bought necessities better than money. [1]
Who made the jewelry
On who made the jewelry, Pogue wrote in 1915:
“The Nepalese, indeed, are noted as clever silversmiths, and much of the jewelry made in Tibet is made by Nepalese artisans.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 81 [1]
China came to turquoise late
Following Laufer, Pogue (1915, p. 82) wrote that the Chinese came to know turquoise no earlier than the Yuan (Mongol) period of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. This is disputed; see the cross-reference to the Lowrys. [1]
Pogue (1915) quoted Marco Polo on a mountain in Caindu, in the west of today's Sichuan:
“wherein they find a kind of stone called turquois in great abundance and it is a very beautiful stone. These the Emperor does not allow to be extracted without his special order.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 83 [1]
The Peking trade in 1915
On Chinese turquoise, Pogue (1915) quoted Laufer:
“The native product ranges from green to blue in color, much of it is marked with black veins, and it is obtainable in comparatively large masses. It is regarded more as an ornamental material than a precious stone.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 83 [1]
As of 1915, Pogue reported:
“At present the turquois trade in China is practically confined to Peking and Si-ngan fu, where the rough stones are fashioned into beads, slabs, and carved ornaments of various sorts.”
— Pogue (1915), p. 83 [1]
Keep reading: the written history of turquoise · tracing the turquoise road · where turquoise comes from · Turquoise Mines of the Southwest
How this article is sourced. We strive for accuracy: every historical statement above is quoted from the printed work listed below, with page numbers, and we update it with new information as we read more of our library. See something we should correct? Contact us.
From the Library: Branson on China and Tibet (1975)
1975 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 1975, not today.
Writing in 1975, Branson described Chinese turquoise:
“Most of the material has a brown to very black veining or matrix resulting in an attractive large spider web.”
— Branson (1975), p. 55 [2]
Branson (1975) held that Chinese stone was easy to recognize:
“Chinese turquoise has a very characteristic color tone and together with the unusual matrix pattern, it can be easily identified.”
— Branson (1975), p. 55 [2]
According to Branson (1975, p. 55), small Chinese nuggets and fragments were cut into "finger bone" shapes, which he called characteristic of most Chinese nugget necklaces. [2]
On treatment, according to Branson (1975, p. 55), the cheaper Chinese nugget necklaces of his day were usually oiled. [2]
Of Tibet, Branson reported in 1975:
“Turquoise is the favorite gem stone of the people of Tibet.”
— Branson (1975), p. 56 [2]
He added, as of 1975 (Branson):
“Almost every person in Tibet possesses some turquoise.”
— Branson (1975), p. 56 [2]
According to Branson (1975, p. 56), Tibetan women's hats and head coverings were studded with turquoise, beads of it were sewn with coral as borders on clothing, and horses and other animals wore turquoise necklaces. [2]
On where the stone came from, Branson (1975) wrote:
“The author was told by the Tibetans that there is no turquoise mining in Tibet.”
— Branson (1975), p. 56 [2]
According to Branson (1975, p. 56), he was told the stone was all picked up from the surface because scarring or defacing the earth went against Tibetan beliefs. Judging by how much turquoise was worn in Tibet, he doubted this was possible unless extensive deposits were weathering out over a very large area, and he noted that Persian or Chinese stones were only occasionally mixed in. [2]
According to Branson (1975, p. 57), turquoise was found in at least four places in Tibet, all great distances apart. The necklaces he pictured came from a refugee Lama who obtained them near his home in Durgeh (Derge), Kam Province, and other stones he showed were said to come from Amdo. [2]
Branson (1975) on the color range of Tibetan stone:
“The colors range from a deep sky blue through almost every possible shade of green and blue.”
— Branson (1975), p. 57 [2]
And on its matrix, Branson (1975) wrote:
“Many of the Tibetan stones have a spider web matrix of a design unequaled anywhere else.”
— Branson (1975), p. 57 [2]
According to Branson (1975, p. 57), the coral in Tibetan turquoise necklaces came from the Coral Sea, traded into Tibet by the Chinese; some of it was very old and highly valued, and a fine bead that broke was repaired with brass pins. [2]
According to Branson (1975, p. 57), turquoise was also mounted in silver as beads, seven of which were usually strung together as a hair ornament. [2]
Branson (1975) made the same linguistic point Pogue had made about Tibet:
“The origin of the use of turquoise in Tibet is thought to be very early as the Tibetan word for it is original and not borrowed from another language, as it has been in most languages.”
— Branson (1975), p. 2 [2]
According to Branson (1975, p. 2), large quantities of Chinese turquoise were made into beads and traded into Mongolia, Tibet and other countries, and he noted that this trade was still going on in his day. [2]
On China, Branson (1975) wrote:
“The Chinese are greatly fascinated by turquoise, and to them it is second only to jade.”
— Branson (1975), p. 2 [2]
According to Branson (1975, p. 57), a turquoise-encrusted box of silver and gilt was used to carry prayers written on cloth or rice paper, and was usually worn around the neck as a pendant. [2]
From the Library: Lowry, Turquoise: The World Story of a Fascinating Gemstone (2010)
2010 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 2010, not today.
According to Lowry (2010, p. 55), China's largest historic turquoise mines were in the central highlands of Hubei Province, and the famous YunGaiSi mine was renowned through most of Asia for producing the best turquoise in China. [3]
Lowry (2010) on Chinese stone:
“China has mined its turquoise deposits for thousands of years, and the quality of the gemstone is as good as any turquoise in the world.”
— Lowry (2010), p. 55 [3]
According to Lowry (2010, p. 55), Chinese craftspeople had begun perfecting turquoise inlay and carving even before the Bronze Age. [3]
On where Tibet's turquoise came from, Lowry (2010) wrote:
“There are no major turquoise deposits that have been located or proven in Tibet, and most research indicates that Tibet traded for turquoise from the Hubei Province through a trade route that extended to Chengdu in the province of Sichuan, China.”
— Lowry (2010), p. 59 [3]
According to Lowry (2010, p. 59), neighboring Nepal also had a great influence on turquoise use, especially after the influx of Tibetan refugees from 1959. [3]
According to Lowry (2010, p. 139), the YunGaiSi mining area in Hubei Province was the most prolific turquoise-producing area in China, supplying Mongolian and Tibetan cultures and the wider world for thousands of years; its deep tunnels had ore-car track, and its tailing piles still held thousands of pounds of unsorted turquoise. [3]
Lowry (2010) quotes nearby factory owner Gao Ping:
“In 1979 there were over three hundred miners at the YunGaiSi Mine.”
— Lowry (2010), p. 139 [3]
According to Lowry (2010, p. 131), the Zhu Shan area in Hubei had over 100 tunnels running up to 400 yards deep (on p. 144 he gives 300 yards), worked with hand and compressor picks, which had supported at least a hundred miners and their families for generations. [3]
Lowry (2010) quotes Zhu Shan miner Luo Hou Zhi on output:
“The Zhu Shan area mines produce about one hundred kilos of high grade turquoise and many times more low grade turquoise a month.”
— Lowry (2010), p. 131 [3]
According to Lowry (2010, p. 144), Chinese miners and small outfits obtained government agreements to mine a set area of hillside; Luo Hou Zhi said he invested 50,000 yuan for a certificate to mine one or more tunnels and paid a low yearly tax. [3]
According to Lowry (2010, p. 140), Hubei-area mines can produce turquoise similar to Nevada's Lander Blue, and Ma'anshan turquoise ranges from greens like Manassa and Royston to blues like Kingman and Morenci, which matters to anyone buying on looks alone. [3]
From the Library: Laufer, Notes on Turquois in the East (1913)
1913 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 1913, not today.
Laufer (1913) on the Tibetan word for turquoise, gyu:
“is indigenous property, being derived neither from Sanskrit nor Chinese; it shows that turquois must have been known to the Tibetans since remote times.”
— Laufer (1913), p. 5 [4]
Laufer (1913) recorded how Tibetans regarded the stone:
“To call a turquois a stone means an offense to the Tibetan”
— Laufer (1913), p. 5 [4]
On old Tibetan stones, Laufer wrote in 1913:
“There are, doubtless, also many ancient turquoises still in their possession as they are inherited from mother to daughter for generations, and thus kept as heirlooms in the same family for centuries; being constantly exposed to the open air, they readily change color and often assume a pale green shade, more or less tainted with black spots.”
— Laufer (1913), p. 5 [4]
According to Laufer (1913, p. 8), drawings of turquoise grades in an old Tibetan treatise ranked deep-blue, lustrous, flawless stones first; white or red streaks counted as a special beauty rather than a flaw; the lighter, greyer or greener the blue, the lower the stone; and stones with black veins, cloudy layers or greenish hues were the common grades. [4]
Laufer (1913) added, of his own day:
“It is interesting to note that this scale of valuation doubtless going back to ancient times holds good also for the present age.”
— Laufer (1913), p. 8 [4]
According to Laufer (1913, p. 10), for most Tibetans of his day turquoise was the favorite stone, with coral and amber ranking next. [4]
On its standing as a gem, Laufer (1913) wrote:
“It seems doubtful whether in ancient times the turquois was considered a precious stone by the Tibetans.”
— Laufer (1913), p. 12 [4]
He added (Laufer, 1913):
“It has never been, even in times of old, a stone of any exaggerated value.”
— Laufer (1913), p. 12 [4]
Laufer (1913) recorded of Ladakh:
“In Ladakh, the bride generally receives, on her wedding day, many of the turquoises which her mother had worn.”
— Laufer (1913), p. 15 [4]
According to Laufer (1913, p. 15), Tibetan swords had hilts and sheaths of repousse gold or silver inlaid with large turquoise and coral beads, an old technique also practiced by the Turks of Central Asia and the Persians. [4]
Laufer (1913) saw deep roots in Tibetan turquoise mosaic:
“The Tibetan process of covering a gold or silver foundation with a mosaic of turquois agrees with the similar technique practised in Siberia during the bronze age, and therefore becomes an historical factor of great importance.”
— Laufer (1913), p. 15 [4]
According to Laufer (1913, p. 16), several Chinese authors who had visited Tibet named Draya, west of Bathang, as a turquoise source. [4]
According to Laufer (1913, p. 17), the same Chinese sources also named the Chamdo district and the territory of Lhasa, which seemed particularly rich in turquoise. [4]
According to Laufer (1913, p. 17), the first European he knew of to report turquoise found in Tibet itself was the Capuchin friar Francesco Orazio della Penna, writing in 1730, and Sarat Chandra Das placed the finest Tibetan turquoise in a mine of the Gangs-chan mountains of Ngari-Khorsum in western Tibet. [4]
From his own inquiries in Tibet, Laufer reported in 1913:
“From my own experience I may say that according to information received in Tibet turquois occurs in several mountains of the great State of Derge in eastern Tibet, though my Tibetan informants were unable to state the exact localities (or, which is more probable, did not want to state them).”
— Laufer (1913), p. 18 [4]
According to Laufer (1913, p. 18), Derge, known for its craftsmen, also turned out fine turquoise carvings; the pieces he collected had a soft apple-green tint unlike any other Tibetan or Chinese turquoise he had met, which seemed to him closer to Mexican stone. [4]
According to Laufer (1913, p. 18), a poor, sickly-green turquoise seemed to come from the mountains north of Ta-tsien-lu in western Sichuan, and Chinese traders there, used to the bright blue of their own stone, dismissed it as spurious. [4]
Laufer (1913) had those stones tested:
“I was first inclined to accept the opinion of the Chinese consulted by me, and to regard these stones as imitations, but Dr. Joseph E. Pogue to whom I sent three specimens for examination convinced me that this opinion was unfounded.”
— Laufer (1913), p. 18 [4]
Summing up Captain Rawling's inquiries across Tibet, Laufer (1913) quoted:
“the consensus of opinion leads one to believe that they exist in the greatest numbers in the country situated between Lhasa and the western border of China.”
— Laufer (1913), p. 19 [4]
According to Laufer (1913, p. 19), the customs register at Leh listed turquoise imported into Ladakh from Persia by way of Bokhara, the best and most valuable coming from Seistan. [4]
On the Darjeeling trade, Laufer noted in 1913:
“In most cases it is possible to discriminate between turquoises of Tibetan and Chinese origin.”
— Laufer (1913), p. 19 [4]
According to Laufer (1913, p. 66), the great Sanskrit-Buddhist dictionary, the Mahavyutpatti, has no word for turquoise in its list of precious stones, so when Buddhism reached Tibet from India in the seventh and eighth centuries the stone was not yet known in India, while it was already widely known in Tibet; Tibetan knowledge of turquoise therefore did not come from India. [4]
Writing in 1913, Laufer found that turquoise, though mined in central China for export to Tibet and Mongolia, was little known among the Chinese themselves:
“Outside of Peking and Si-ngan fu, where the trade is monopolized by a few of the initiated, the stone is hardly familiar to the people at large, nor to the educated classes; in Shanghai, Hankow, and Canton, it is entirely unknown.”
— Laufer (1913), p. 20 [4]
According to Laufer (1913, p. 20), the Chinese stones then reaching Ladakh were usually azure-blue; it was the Tibetan stones that were flawed and very green. [4]
According to Laufer (1913, p. 30), no Chinese writer had ranked turquoise as a precious stone; it was classed as an ordinary stone, and in 1909 it sold by weight in Si-ngan fu. [4]
Laufer (1913) set out his own dating directly:
“We shall see farther on that turquois became known and was mined in China only under the Yuan dynasty following the Sung, so that we may justly conclude that the Chinese of the Sung period were not yet acquainted with it.”
— Laufer (1913), p. 32 [4]
According to Laufer (1913, p. 47), the older Chinese records of a jewel called se-se, which some scholars had read as turquoise, more likely meant the balas ruby (spinel) of Badakhshan, or for ancient Tibet probably the emerald, so those records do not push Chinese turquoise earlier. [4]
According to Laufer (1913, p. 57), the Cho keng lu of 1366 listed a third kind of turquoise, from King-chou, called the tien-tse of Siang-yang, a city and prefecture of Hubei; he read it as the oldest Chinese reference to a turquoise locality in China proper and the first authentic Chinese word for the stone. [4]
That record described the Siang-yang stone as changeable in color, which Laufer (1913) thought fitting:
“The changing of color, indeed, fits the turquois, since its blue shades often fade to a pale green on long exposure to the light.”
— Laufer (1913), p. 57 [4]
According to Laufer (1913, p. 57), Tu Wan's lapidary of 1133 described building stones quarried at Siang-yang but said nothing of turquoise there or anywhere else, which he took as further evidence that the mines were not yet worked in the Sung period. [4]
Laufer (1913) judged the fourteenth-century Hubei workings minor:
“This early mining in Hu-pei cannot have been of great importance, as it is not alluded to in later sources.”
— Laufer (1913), p. 58 [4]
His 1913 summary of the stone's place in China:
“To the Chinese it was an alien substance which never became a national factor in their jewelry.”
— Laufer (1913), p. 58 [4]
According to Laufer (1913, p. 59), under the Mongol (Yuan) dynasty turquoise offered to the throne could be counted against a region's taxes, and at least three mines were then worked: in Hubei, in Yunnan and in Sichuan (Marco Polo's Caindu). [4]
According to Laufer (1913, p. 60), a Chinese book on antiquities of 1387, the Ko ku yao lun, gave the southern and western Tibetans as sources, described the stones as blue and green, and said black and green ones were low in price. [4]
According to Laufer (1913, p. 60), the Chinese porcelain glaze that collectors called 'turquoise glaze' was made with a copper silicate and, in Chinese eyes, had no connection with the stone; the name was of foreign origin. [4]
Laufer (1913) found a gap in the Chinese record after the Mongols:
“In the records of the Ming and Ts'ing dynasties, there is no reference to quarrying turquois.”
— Laufer (1913), p. 61 [4]
According to Laufer (1913, p. 61), when the Qianlong-era court (1736-95) did use turquoise, it was usually set together with other stones for color effects, as on a carved red lacquer box inlaid with jade, lapis lazuli, turquoise and amethystine quartz. [4]
As of 1913, Laufer described the Si-ngan fu workshops he had seen in 1909:
“In Si-ngan fu there may be a dozen traders engaged in the business. They are all settled in the same street and work up the raw material in their own shops.”
— Laufer (1913), p. 63 [4]
Laufer (1913) on how Tibetan buyers tested a drilled stone:
“The first experiment that a Tibetan will make with a turquois offered is to ascertain the quality of the perforation by blowing or spitting through it, or by boring it with a needle. If the experiment is unsuccessful, he will return it at once.”
— Laufer (1913), p. 63 [4]
According to Laufer (1913, p. 63), stones at Si-ngan were sold by weight, at 5 to 8 taels a catty (then about $3.50 to $5.60 for 1⅓ pounds); only exceptional stones and very small, carefully polished beads were sold singly. [4]
According to Laufer (1913, p. 63), besides beads and flat stones the Chinese carvers made turquoise rocks and birds to serve as paperweights, tiger and fish pendants to hang from a girdle, hollowed-out snuff bottles, and flower-shaped buttons for caps. [4]
According to Laufer (1913, p. 64), Rockhill was told at Si-ngan in 1889 that turquoise was found in Henan; no one confirmed this to Laufer in 1909, and he thought those mines might since have been exhausted. [4]
Laufer (1913) recorded where the Si-ngan dealers said their stone came from:
“From one of the turquois dealers in Si-ngan fu the information was given me that the turquoises traded there come from the prefecture of Yun-yang in Hu-pei Province, while another more especially pointed to the district of Chu-shan, situated in the same prefecture, as the place of production.”
— Laufer (1913), p. 65 [4]
On how old that Hubei production was, Laufer (1913) wrote:
“It is very probable that the turquois production of Yun-yang fu is of recent date, and presumably posterior to the publication of the Geography; it seems to me that the exhaustion of the turquois mines in Ho-nan may have given the impetus to a search for a new locality in Hu-pei.”
— Laufer (1913), p. 65 [4]
These are outside observers' records from over a century ago; the nations themselves are the authority on their own beliefs.
Laufer (1913) recorded:
“In the religious service turquoises are employed, strung in the shape of beads, for rosaries, 108 beads being the usual number.”
— Laufer (1913), p. 13 [4]
On turquoise-set images, Laufer (1913) noted a way collectors told them apart:
“Buddhist images, thus treated, may readily be recognized as Lamaist deities, as the Chinese never adopt this method.”
— Laufer (1913), p. 13 [4]
According to Laufer (1913, p. 13), the gold sarcophagus of the first Panchen Lama at Tashilhunpo near Shigatse was covered with ornamental work and studded with turquoises and precious stones. [4]
According to Laufer (1913, p. 13), the Tibetan annals described a shrine at bSam-yas, the oldest Tibetan temple (mid-eighth century), with beams said to be of turquoise; he suggested that, if not a figure of speech, the stones were inlaid as a mosaic. [4]
According to Laufer (1913, p. 62), under the Qianlong emperor turquoise was first sanctioned for the imperial cult: the emperor wore a turquoise rosary when officiating at the Temple of the Moon, and turquoise was set in court girdles, helmets and sword-sheaths. [4]
From the Library: Ryan & Chambless, Turquoise in America Part Two: 1910–1990 (2020)
2020 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 2020, not today.
According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 235), the earliest evidence of turquoise in China was found in 2002 during excavation at Erlitou in Yanshi City, Henan Province, the ruins of an imperial city of the Xia dynasty (2100-1600 BC), where archaeologists uncovered a dragon about 70 cm long formed from more than 2,000 pieces of turquoise. [5]
According to Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 235), turquoise never reached the same importance in China that it held for its western neighbors, Tibet and Persia; they note that Laufer cited the Imperial Geography of 1745 as evidence that turquoise production in Hubei was then of recent date, and suggest that exhaustion of earlier production in neighboring Henan may explain the shift. [5]
Ryan & Chambless (2020) explain why Chinese stone found no American buyers in 1890-1910, when New York jewelers wanted clear sky-blue:
“Chinese turquoise with pronounced matrix and a range of colors from dark blue to green was not in demand.”
— Ryan & Chambless (2020), p. 236 [5]
Ron Alexander, one of the first Americans to reach the Hubei mine, described the Chinese carving trade of the mid-1980s in an interview published by Ryan & Chambless (2020):
“So virtually all the stuff in Hong Kong and around was this waxed Chinese turquoise product.”
— Ryan & Chambless (2020), p. 256 [5]
Allan Voshall recalled, in an interview published by Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 249), that Chinese carvers preferred soft chalk they could boil in paraffin for color over hard stone, because the shops had no diamond tools, made their own from nails and scrap steel, and were paid the same whatever they carved. [5]
Voshall also passed on what his Chinese hosts told him about Tibet, in an interview published by Ryan & Chambless (2020):
“According to the Chinese, there was really no turquoise in Tibet because they traded for it right here and the Han River heads towards Tibet.”
— Ryan & Chambless (2020), p. 244 [5]
Ron Alexander recalled, in an interview published by Ryan & Chambless (2020, p. 258), that a Chinese geology ministry report pointed him to the Yungai mine outside Yunxian in Hubei, which he described as an ancient mine of the Han emperors, opened in the Han period (206 BC-220 AD) when, as he told it, turquoise was reserved for the royal family. [5]
From the Library: Khazeni, Sky Blue Stone (2014)
2014 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 2014, not today.
According to Khazeni (2014, p. 49), in Buddhist Tibet, where turquoise was regarded as auspicious and therapeutic, the best stones were known to come up from India, and the traffic between the two ran both ways, with raw Tibetan turquoise sent to India to be worked in gold and silver. [6]
Khazeni (2014) on Tibetan Buddhist art:
“Further, the iconographic art of Lamaism represents the peoples of Islamic Eurasia making tributes and giving gifts to Buddha of precious stones, including turquoise, lapis lazuli, and rubies, suggesting their role in carrying this trade eastward to Tibet”
— Khazeni (2014), p. 50 [6]
Khazeni (2014) weighed how the first fine stones reached Tibet:
“It is unclear how early turquoise came into use in Tibet, but the historical evidence suggests that the earliest fine turquoises to arrive there were Persian stones sent through India, where turquoise had spread by the fifteenth century.”
— Khazeni (2014), p. 50 [6]
From the Library: Lowry, Turquoise Unearthed: An Illustrated Guide (2002)
2002 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 2002, not today.
As of 2002, Lowry (2002) reported:
“Since the 1980s, China has become the largest source, accounting for as much as half of today's worldwide turquoise trade.”
— Lowry (2002), p. 8 [7]
According to Lowry (2002, p. 8), Chinese turquoise was then more affordable than American because supply was abundant, labor costs were lower and mining faced fewer environmental restrictions; colors varied greatly, usually with a brown or black web matrix. [7]
Field Notes by Mateo James
I notice the two books disagree on whether Tibet had turquoise mines. Pogue, following Laufer in 1915, listed Tibetan localities including a mine in the Gangs-chan mountains of western Tibet, while Branson was told in 1975 that there was no mining at all, only surface collecting, and doubted it himself. Both name Derge in eastern Tibet as a source. Both accounts stay on the page.
I notice Pogue, following Laufer in 1915, has China coming to turquoise no earlier than the Mongol period, while Lowry (2010) writes that Chinese craftspeople were inlaying and carving it even before the Bronze Age. That is a gap of thousands of years. Chambless & Ryan’s Part One (2021) doesn't cover Chinese turquoise; their Part Two (2020) does (see the note below), and both views stay on the page.
I notice Laufer, writing in 1913 from what he was told in Tibet, was certain that turquoise occurred in the mountains of Derge in eastern Tibet, while Lowry (2010) writes that no major deposits have been located or proven in Tibet and that its turquoise came by trade from Hubei. Laufer himself admits his informants could not or would not name the exact places. Both accounts stay on the page.
Pogue, following Laufer, puts Chinese knowledge of turquoise no earlier than the Mongol period, but Ryan & Chambless (2020) point to a turquoise dragon excavated in 2002 at Erlitou, a Xia dynasty site dated 2100-1600 BC. The two can't both stand as written, and the 2002 excavation came long after Laufer and Pogue wrote. I tend to side with Ryan & Chambless here.
Branson (1975) records turquoise from at least four places in Tibet, while the Hubei miners Allan Voshall worked with told him Tibet had really none and traded for Chinese stone. Voshall is reporting what he was told, in an interview Ryan & Chambless (2020) published, not making a geological claim of his own. I can't settle it from the books, so both accounts stay on the page.
I notice Laufer (1913) and Khazeni (2014) see India's part differently. Laufer concluded that turquoise was already widely known in Tibet when it was still unknown in India, so Tibetan knowledge of it did not come from India. Khazeni writes that the evidence suggests the earliest fine turquoises to reach Tibet were Persian stones sent through India.
Sources
- Pogue, Joseph E. The Turquois: A Study of Its History, Mineralogy, Geology, Ethnology, Archaeology, Mythology, Folklore, and Technology. Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. XII, Part II, Third Memoir. Washington, 1915. Public domain. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1915.
- Branson, Oscar T. Turquoise: The Gem of the Centuries. Santa Fe: Treasure Chest Publications, 1975. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1975.
- Lowry, Joe Dan, and Joe P. Lowry. Turquoise: The World Story of a Fascinating Gemstone. Layton, UT: Gibbs Smith, 2010. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2010.
- Laufer, Berthold. Notes on Turquois in the East. Field Museum of Natural History, Anthropological Series, Vol. XIII, No. 1. Chicago, 1913. Public domain. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1913.
- Ryan, Mike, II, and Philip Chambless. Turquoise in America, Part Two: 1910–1990. Callais Press, 2020. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2020.
- Khazeni, Arash. Sky Blue Stone: The Turquoise Trade in World History. The California World History Library 20. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2014.
- Lowry, Joe Dan, and Joe P. Lowry. Turquoise Unearthed: An Illustrated Guide. Photography by Mark Nohl. Tucson, AZ: Rio Nuevo Publishers, 2002. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2002.