Tibetan Turquoise: A Trade Name, a Market, and Old Beads

Rarely, if ever, and not on any record we can verify today. Writers a century ago passed on reports of turquoise in the mountains of Derge and western Tibet, though Berthold Laufer’s own informants in 1913 would not or could not name the places. ^[1] Joe Dan Lowry, writing in 2010, was direct:

“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…”
— Lowry (2010), p. 59 ^[2]

Chinese geological sources say the same today. A 2020 publication of the China Geological Survey states that Tibet does not produce turquoise, and that most of what is sold there comes from elsewhere, chiefly Hubei. ^[5] The geology museum of the China University of Geosciences says the same. ^[6] The Tibetologist John Vincent Bellezza wrote in 2013 that he had been unable to confirm whether any of the old Tibetan sources still produce. ^[7] We found no documented turquoise mining in Tibet in 2025 or 2026.

From everywhere else. Laufer recorded in 1913 that “large quantities of turquoises cut into stones or beads and worked into carved objects are imported nowadays from China into Tibet,” much of it used by Chinese traders for barter. ^[1] Lowry makes the larger point:

“The Tibetan and Native American cultures generally do not mine the turquoise that they set in their jewelry.”
— Lowry (2010), p. 164 ^[2]

Most of the stones, he writes, are “considered a trade stone because they were mined and cut by someone else.” ^[2] The trade still runs in every direction. Lowry notes that it is not unusual “for a Tibetan monk to buy American turquoise to take back to set in Tibetan jewelry.” ^[2]

In the trade the word has carried a judgment as often as an address. Laufer summarizes an account by H. Ramsay of the turquoise trade in Ladakh: the good stones were free of flaws, with very little green,

“while inferior kinds are known as ‘Tibetan’ and ‘Chinese turquoises,’ which come to Ladakh from Lhasa or China; they are full of flaws and generally very green.”
— Laufer (1913), p. 20 ^[1]

Ladakhis, Ramsay concludes, liked “a little green, as they consider it a sort of guarantee that the turquois has not been manufactured.” ^[1] A generation later, and an ocean away, the names were still sliding. Arthur Woodward warned curio shoppers in 1946:

“The so-called ‘Persian turquoise nuggets’ which are seen in many shops devoted to Oriental curios are said to be imported from Thibet. The poor grades of these stones are also dyed and the spidery black lines on the irregular lumpy beads are faked with carbon.”
— Woodward (1946), p. 48 ^[3]

A stone sold as Persian, said to come from Tibet, dyed in the shop: the name told the buyer nothing.

Lowry’s advice for any named turquoise holds here:

“Turquoise sold in the Tibetan, Chinese, Iranian, and European markets can also be from multiple sources from around the world. If the consumer wants to buy a turquoise from a Classic Mine, then he or she needs to get a written guarantee of the mine source from the miner and salesperson.”
— Lowry (2010), p. 231 ^[2]

Dealers who sell under the name now say much the same. One describes most “Tibetan turquoise” jewelry in the United States as Hubei material sold under a Tibetan label, “a provenance misrepresentation, not a material one.” ^[8] (A dealer’s view; no independent source puts a number on it.)

Treatment is old here too. Ron Alexander, who developed his own turquoise treatment, told Ryan and Chambless that oiling and waxing is the oldest method, “done by people in Tibet and Nepal and China for centuries.” ^[4] Modern beads may be resin-filled, waxed, oiled or dyed; ^[9] some sold as “reconstructed turquoise” contain no turquoise at all. ^[10] In our terms an oiled, waxed or dyed bead is Enhanced; a clear-resin bead is Stabilized. See What Do These Confusing Turquoise Terms Mean?

Age leaves marks that are hard to fake all at once. Laufer saw heirloom stones in Tibet, worn for generations, turn pale green with black spots; our article on turquoise in Tibet has his account. ^[1] Bellezza and the collector James Wainwright both point to heavy wear at the holes, patina, and color change from long wear; ^[7] Wainwright adds that a bead often darkens more on the side worn against the skin, and that modern beads are uniformly shaped and evenly polished. ^[11] None of this tells you where a bead was mined. Green from age and green from iron look alike, and color alone cannot establish origin.