Editor’s Note
This article is part of a series exploring Colombia’s famed “four treasures.” Having previously covered coffee, flowers, and gold, we now turn to the country’s legendary emeralds, which dominate the global market and are steeped in captivating lore.
Colombia has four treasures: coffee, flowers, gold, and emeralds. In our previous programs, we introduced coffee, flowers, and gold. Today, let’s take a look at emeralds.
Emerald is the finest among green gemstones. Colombia is the world’s source of the highest quality emeralds, with its production accounting for 70%-90% of the global emerald market. Behind the emerald lies a beautiful and melancholic legend. Let’s now learn about the story of Colombian emeralds.
As the first rays of sunlight rise with the clear morning, Colombia’s capital, Bogotá, begins to bustle. People here are accustomed to waking up early. Walking into the old city district’s Seventh Avenue, this is the famous Emerald Street, lined with jewelry stores and shops, with street vendors also selling rough stones. The surrounding coffee shops are bustling with people. By 10 a.m., various jewelry stores begin their business.
On this seemingly ordinary avenue, annual transactions of emeralds and jewelry reach as high as $1 billion. It is also on this avenue that the world’s best craftsmen for creating emerald jewelry gather. Being amidst it allows one to personally feel the magic of emeralds!
I casually walked into a small market, where a jewelry display case inside caught my eye. Looking at a crystal-clear, transparent, and vividly green emerald, my curiosity was piqued and I started chatting with the shopkeeper. The shopkeeper was a young man around 30 years old with a bright smile, named Santiago. Santiago said his family has its own emerald mining area, with his father and other brothers responsible for mining, and he handles sales. Since childhood, emeralds have become a part of his life.
Seeing that I was an outsider, Santiago began to tell me about the origin of emeralds. He said emerald is a member of the beryl family, mostly formed in hydrothermal veins. Due to extremely complex and intense geological structures, the strata undergo bending and folding during the sedimentation process. Under pressure impact, fractures are produced. Rich mineral brines then flow into these fractures. Originally opposing elements combine and crystallize, interacting with sedimentary salts to ultimately produce emeralds.
In other countries and regions, beryl forms under high temperature and high pressure, but the typical geological conditions of Colombian deposits are relatively low temperature and pressure, making Colombian emeralds the most typical and highest quality. Currently, Colombia has three major mining areas with about 150 deposits. Among them, Muzo produces the most emeralds with the best quality, hailed as the “Goddess’s Tears.” Santiago said emeralds were mined by indigenous people hundreds of years ago, and Colombians all know that Muzo emeralds have a beautiful legend.
I was determined to delve deeper into this beautiful legend, so I took advantage of a lull in customers to continue asking Santiago. It turns out this is a Colombian version of the Adam and Eve story.
The creator of the Muzo people was named Aria. One day, Aria came to the Sankara River, molded two lovers from clay, and gave them life with clear river water. The girl was named Fura, and the boy was named Tena. Aria taught them farming, weaving, and pottery making, how to resist wild beast attacks, allowing them to remain forever young. Aria emphasized: “The only condition for enjoying all this is that the two people love each other forever and remain faithful, otherwise they will face severe punishment.”
Days passed peacefully. Fura and Tena lived happily, raising many descendants. One day, a young man from another tribe named Zarbi came to Muzo in search of rare flowers. During the flower search, Fura and Zarbi fell in love. The heartbroken Tena sharpened a wooden stick and forcefully pierced his own chest. The stick simultaneously pierced Fura. The lover’s fresh blood and the pain from her own body confused Fura. Her cries broke the mountain valley’s silence, turning into swarms of flying hummingbirds. Her tears turned into clusters of emerald mountains under the sunlight, leaving endless treasures for future generations. This beautiful yet sad legend has been passed down to this day, and Colombia’s rare treasure is named “Fura.” It is an uncut, transparent emerald weighing 100 carats. Another precious rough stone is named “Tena.”
After hearing this beautiful legend, I felt the emerald before me seemed to have life. Nature has endowed Colombia with infinite treasures. Its emerald reserves account for 65% of the world’s total, and its export volume accounts for 85% of the world’s total exports, earning Colombia billions of dollars in foreign exchange income annually. Colombia’s coffee is world-renowned, Colombia’s flowers are colorful, becoming the world’s second-largest flower exporter in 40 years, and Colombia has the reputation of the “Gold Country.” The four treasures of emeralds, coffee, flowers, and gold not only give Colombia a charming and beautiful national image but also bring huge economic benefits, solving employment for a large population. Today, this gem country is vigorously developing new energy industries. Perhaps in the near future, we will see Colombia’s fifth treasure.