Pala Nomads and the Jade Pendant
A heavy, blood jade pendant on a string beaded with delicate tin beads.
Spent a week traveling through Tibet,
it’s there I discovered “blood jade.”
October 2015 started off at such great heights, I began my journey to Base Camp Everest, only making it more challenging with attempting to go up from the Tibetan side. This is also known as North Base Camp or Mt. Qomolangma in Tibetan Pinyin. It required a ton of red stamps from the Chinese government for approval to travel, along with paying out the wazoo for permits to be allowed into the Tibetan Autonomous Region. I’ll write more about this later. (I ended up in the local hospital and became a bit of a celebrity; I was the only foreigner most of these people had ever seen.)
Anyway, moving along - The Blood Jade!
The soft and pillowy yaks were everywhere, to touch one was heaven!
Heading northwest out of Lhasa, we stopped at Namtso Lake. This lake is one of three that local Tibetans consider as holy (the other two are Yamdrok Lake and Lake Manasarovar) and is the highest saltwater lake in the world with a surface elevation at 15,479ft (4,718 m)!
The kind, local Tibetan that haggled with me for almost an hour!
I started off perusing the shoreline, none too interested in taking a yak ride. I had gotten a selfie with one earlier that day and was pretty satisfied with that. I was really taken aback at how incredibly clear the water was, I can understand how they consider this place holy. Just then, I saw movement to my right; It was this man swinging a strand of prayer beads. He reminded me of how they used to describe early native traders in books. Dark, long hair, leather booted and layered, always supplied with a menagerie of exotic treasures. I loved how his pops of warm colour contrasted amongst the deep blues of the water and sky.
That’s When
I Saw it.
I had never seen such a thing before, jade that looked like it was bleeding. I asked him what it was and he replied that it was chicken’s blood. Yeah, never heard of that - had to ask one of my Chinese friends what it was and they explained it was a type of jade or jadeite. Ok, jade is something I understand, especially with living in China as long as I had, I could at least distinguish between real and fake jade.
I have long been attracted to this stone, partially because I love green, but mostly because of its historical weight. Jade has been used for thousands of years in China to signify royalty and wealth, (emperors were buried in suits made of this stuff) and there’s a Chinese proverb that states, “Gold has a price, Jade is priceless.” It is definitely one of those stones that if I’m in that country of origin, I will seek it out; much like Lapis Lazuli in Egypt and Turquoise/Coral in the Americas.
I asked him to demonstrate the strength of the stone, jade is known for its density and hardness. He asked me to select any rock from the ground and he would break it in half. I handed him a thick, round one, and with one mighty ‘whack!’ - HE BROKE MY ROCK IN HALF WITH THE PENDANT. “Bù kě néng!” I shout and made him do it a few more times. I can see that the stone has irregular colouring, I ask if I could hold the pendant, I wanted to check to see if the rock was cold, smooth, and soap-like. Sure enough, it was, which means it’s real. I told him it was a nice stone and casually asked about the price; he wanted 1000 kuai for it. “Tài guìle!” That was well over $150 at the time and there was no way I was paying that, so I began bargaining. This guy would barely budge after 3-4 rounds, I had to eventually walk away. He would chase and shout out a few more prices, but none were anywhere near what I was willing to pay. Spotted a small shop with all sorts of hanging knick-knacks and went that way to check it out.
Shop owner and his children.
This was more my thing anyway, I’d rather spend it in smaller shops that have young families. I look at the yak butter churns on the floor against the wall and admire all the tasseled strands of glass prayer beads adorned with Buddhas hanging above. I decided to buy a few prayer flags, and as I’m on my way out to hang them, Mr. Jade comes running back up to me - he wants to bargain more. At this point, I’m no longer interested and have already decided to look elsewhere. I tell him this and he asks what my final price is; I give him an absurd amount. He looks me dead in the eyes, gets flustered and asks again. I repeat myself (the student has learned wisely this time) and he scolds me for “taking all his profit,” but he’ll sell it to me for what I asked. Whoa, what?! I ask zero questions further and fork over the cash. With pendant in one hand, a firm handshake and “xiè xie” with the other, I feel sweet victory rush over me. Must have been a really slow day, would have never thought to have got away with what I did. He was kind of right in a way, I Shanghai’d him.
A holy rock where people string their prayer flags and drape their silk Khatas (prayer scarves) over.
