Sri Lanka's gem industry has a history of nearly 2500 years. Then and now gems were a major export product of the island making it world famous for PRECIOUS stones. From the first Century AD numerous are the scattered references made to the country’s PRECIOUS and SEMI-PRECIOUS stones. Archeologically evidence has proved that even in pre-historic times gems had attracted the country’s early inhabit
ants. Valuable pieces of gems were found among tools that ear3y humans used during Balangoda civilization which is considered to be over 30,000 years old. The people of that era cherished these stones perhaps because of their beauty and used them for making necklaces and bangles for many years. The first record of Sri Lankan gems is found in the chronicle Mahawansa (chapter 1:46) according to which Lord Buddah( 625 – 545 B.C) arrived in Sri Lanka in the 6th century B.C to settle a dispute between two kings of the Naga tribe – Chulodara and Mahodara over a gem studded throne. King Devanampiyathissa who rued Sri Lanka in the 250 B.C sent three kind of beautiful gems and eight types of pearls to Indian Emperor Asoka as a gift (Mahawansa chap 11.22) kung Parakramabahu 1 (1153-1186 A.D) sent gems and pearls to foreign countries by ship for trade purposes (Mahawansa chap 69:33). Apart from Mahawansa many other chronicles focus on Sri Lanka‘s gem industry. The Indian epic Mhabharatha refers to Sri Lanka’s king “Viebeshana” sending gems and pearls as a gift to north India’s king Yudeeshdeera in the Kuru kingdom. These are in addition to the reference to Sri Lanka’s gems that foreign travelers, historians and visitors like Fa-hsein, Ptolemy, Marco Polo, Ibn Batuta and Robert Knox made in their records of this country in later years.
