Some 200 miles southeast of Bangkok, huge yellow bulldozers and mechanical diggers begin the day’s work of tearing up the lush green countryside. In their wake the earth lies brown and pockmarked. Here, riches lie literally underfoot. This wild corner of Thailand, in Trat and Chanthaburi provinces, accounts for most of the world’s facet-quality rubies. And Bangkok, the national’s capital, is the premier market for international buyers. Thailand’s official ruby exports exceed $130 million annually, but as one Bangkok gem trader points out, “you can add half as much again to that as many deals are never recorded”.Within an area of barely 20 square miles lie 25 to 30 productive gem fields centred on Trat’s rough-and-tumble mining communities like Bo Rai and Nong Bon. The atmosphere is reminiscent of America’s old Wild West. On my first visit to Bo Rai a man was killed in a shoot-out for stealing a ruby from another min er. No one knows exactly how many people are involved in rub y mining. Bo Rai, the largest mining town, has an official population of some 36000, but the actual figure is probably much higher as Mon, Burmese and khmer illegal immigrants join in the hunt of riches, spurred by stories such as a 150-carat ruby rough found in 1985 that sold for $1.2 million.

One Of the major gem stones rubies are the rarest. A large perfect diamond can be found, but a large, perfect ruby is unheard of. Carat for carat a ruby will cost more than a diamond. As far back as biblical, the ruby has been priced for its beauty and rarity ‘the price of wisdom’ the old treatment reminds us, ‘is above rubies’ (job 28:18). The stone has always been a symbol of wealth and status. The crown jewels of European and Asian monarchies alike abound with fine rubies, and a cameo of England Queen Elizabeth I is carved on a large ruby. In 1986 Prince Andrew gave his fiancée a ruby engagement ring.Above all, though, the ruby is an oriental stone. Its main source has always been the Far East, and for Asian potentates throughout history it was the marked of wealth and power. Traveller’s tails abound with accounted of rubies priceless beyond the wildest dreams. In his travels, Marko polo describes a ruby belonging to the King of Ceylon; ‘it is about a palm in length and of the thickness of a man’s arm. It is the most brilliant object to be hold in the entire world….’ So awe inspiring is the red of the ruby that in ancient times oriental thought it was alive. Ripening in the earth like a fruit. Medieval medical journals even listed the ruby as a cure for many ailments when taken in powdered form or simply worn next to the skin.

In India, the ruby was known by the Sanskrit word ratnaraj, meaning ‘king of precious stones’. According to the ancient Hindus, a ruby offering to the god Krishna would allow you to be rebind as an emperor. The Burmese believed that rubies could make a person invulnerable in battle, and warriors would have a gem embedded beneath their skin. In Thailand the regalia of the menarche and the seasonal costumes of the emerald Buddha, the countries most revered image, incrusted with rubies, among other gems.Ruby mining in Thailand dates back to the late 19th century, traditionally a private affair with groups of three or four diggers working with small stakes. Beginning in the 1960s, mining operations started to expand and the most productive fields are now run by private companies employing hundred or more workers. And by the late 1960s, Thailand was producing more rubies than any other countries of the world. Today, however, the Thai mines are yielding a smaller volume than two or three years ago, thereby making rare gem even rarer. Thus, poor, independent miners have been risking life and limb to prospect illegally inside neighbouring Cambodia.