Natural Gemstones in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is a tropical island in Southern Asia and known as “Ratna-Dweepa”, which means Gem Island and has very long jewelry history. Sri Lanka has ancient name “Serendip”, which is the origin of the word “Serendipity” meaning to encounter a nice coincidence or to discover something unexpected. It was named by Persian who traded gemstones from Sri Lanka to China during the 4th to 5th century. Sri Lanka is an extremely old country geographically and precious gems such as sapphire and ruby are extracted from the rocks in highland which are of Precambrian age, 560 million to 2,400 million years ago. Most of the large, high-quality sapphires found on the world market are mined from such a gem deposit in the country.

In the 1980s, it was discovered that a nearly colorless sapphire stone called Giuda, which had been discarded until then, became a beautiful blue when heat treated. These rough stones are brought to Thailand in large quantities and heat treated, polished, and sold on the world market, where they now dominate the market. However, heat treatment is not generally notified to consumers. Some of the sapphires that are mined and polished in Sri Lanka are not heat treated. The crystals are beautiful and colorful as they are, and require no processing other than polishing, that makes it natural and rare, as they were created by Mother Nature. Sri Lankan gem polishers and certification labs can tell from the appearance whether a gem is untreated or heated. This is because the difference in clarity and color makes the difference in beauty.

RURI is honored to deliver natural unheated gemstones from Sri Lanka. If a gem is heated or indication of heat treated is detected by lab, RURI always notify to customers.