Myanmar: The Smuggled Stone That Was Once More Precious Than Gold

Jul 13, 2014 | Alex Preston, BBC
View Original

Myanmar, also known as Burma, is one of the world's largest Jade producers - but with trade bound by international sanctions, many of the precious gemstones are smuggled out of the country.

At first, I think it's a waterfall. A wave of liquid sound comes towards me over the brackish waters of the Irrawaddy River.

As I get closer, crossing a bridge beside a flock of orange-robed monks, the wash of noise becomes louder, more crystalline. I'm in Mandalay, northern Myanmar, a bustling city of a million people, and the sound is the clack and rattle of hundreds of thousands of precious stones in the world's largest jade market.