Tz'u Hsi- Empress of China and her pink tourmaline

[Crystal canuck]

I thought I would share an interesting story about Tz'u Hsi who was the last empress of China who had a really strong affinity for Pink tourmaline. She ruled China from 1860-1908 AD, and surrounded herself with Pink tourmaline. She loved it so much she caused an economic boom in the US when tourmaline was found in calafornia mines, and would buy the entire stock. She practically caused a worldwide shortage. When the Chinese demand ceased after her death, it caused an economic downturn.

Tz'u Hsi is known as the most famous woman in Chinese history, and at the time was considered the most powerful woman in the world. She would have all sorts of artists commissioned to make all sorts of sculptures and art made from pink tourmaline, and useful items like snuff bottles, some of which are in museums.

Some of her critics claim she was too self indulgent at the expense of the security of the nation. At one 8 year period she actually had 120 tons of the material mined for her. Her body is literally laid to rest on a tourmaline pillow.

http://http://m.palaminerals.com/blo...ssion-for-pink


http://https://www.gia.edu/tourmaline-history-lore





I find this woman fascinating. One of my vendors told me about her when I mentioned how much my wife loves tourmaline. He thought I would find the story interesting, and he's right I do. I hope you guys find this half as interesting as I do.

[Sylmar]

I didn't know that she was such a collector of minerals. That is some lovely Tourmaline! I've seen a documentary of her aired a while ago about the Dutch painter Hubert Vos who painted some paintings of her. The paintings have been restored a few years ago. It was a pretty interesting documentary, hope I can find it somewhere.

[Compendium]

Very interesting thank you for sharing.

[FairyCrystal]

Nice! Very interesting, I liked reading it, and like the photo of the painting too! Thanks for sharing :)
Oh, here's the correct links (the ones in the OP don't work)

http://m.palaminerals.com/blog/2015/...ssion-for-pink

https://www.gia.edu/tourmaline-history-lore

[Crystal canuck]

Thanks Fairycrystal for correcting the links. I have gotten used to posting pictures but I guess I need more practice posting links. Another fun fact is that the 120 tons of pink tourmaline was actually of gem quality !

Also I am sorry for the strong words in the pink quartz thread. I realize that I'm entitled to my opinion, but on further reflection realize I might have been a little sensitive, maybe more critical than I needed to be, and if I'm being honest perhaps borderline jerk. Not saying I'm 100 % wrong but I could have been a little bit more gentle, I'm sorry for that BTW your pink quartz does have a nicer color than mine. The Chinese pink quartz is not as nice of a pink. ( I have seen one that was but it's so rare I will admit that it basically doesn't exist in that vibrant of a colour from china ) Still is a nice pink quartz tho.

Also maybe you have some point about Chinese and a past life. It's not a totally unreasonable theory. I do as you say seem to resonate with the Chinese crystals, love dealing with the Chinese even in my regular business activities, and sometimes I find myself thinking certain Chinese people look friendly when I have no basis for that.

Thanks Sylmar for the additional picture ! I didn't know there was a documentary on her, I would be interested in watching that maybe. Even tourmaline aside she was a very interesting character full of intrigue. It has been said her power exceeded that of Queen Elizabeth in the height of her reign.

[FairyCrystal]

Thank you, Canuck.
It might indeed be worth meditating on why you have such strong affinity with China. That could very well be why you feel drawn to Chinese crystals as they too hold the energy from that country, especially 'old' energy as crystals were formed quite some time ago.
If you had a very happy life -maybe lives even- there, they could make you feel right at home. You'll recognize the energies and they'll resonate deeply.
Which is a beautiful thing :)
Now all I wanted to say about this entire thing -and please don't get angry again!- is that all that is very personal, and not based on facts, more on (possibly subconscious) feelings. Meaning that all that doesn't make these crystals high quality/high vibrational. Which was all I wanted to convey, which is based on facts.
Again, nothing wrong with them if they resonate with you, but you always advocate them as being high vibrational and top quality, which is misinforming other people. That's the only reason I ever react to this, and I think you always take it personal, which is isn't. Not at all.

You know, I'd love to see you write about how your Chinese crystals make you feel, without making the assumption what you feel is factual and goes for everyone, but from your heart, what they do for you, recognizing your special, unique connection with this country & people & crystals, and writing about that.
So moving from "let me tell you how great Chinese crystals are" (sales pitch style) to "My passion and journey with Chinese crystals".
Could become an international bestseller. Not joking.
And you know wot... by doing that you would beadvocating China, its people, and it's crystals, but in a completely different gentle way that would arouse interest.
Just a thought. Anyhow, wishing you a wonderful day!

[Crystal canuck]

Hi fairycrystal ! Thank for the kind and understanding words. I will do some reflecting on why these Chinese crystals seem to jive or resonate with me. I feel we are coming closer to at least an understanding if not an agreement.

To be clear I was never trying to advocate that Chinese crystals were the top quality or highest vibration, however I believe that good crystals can be found in all parts of the world. I was only trying to state that some nice crystals can be found in China for very reasonable prices. My intention was never to misinform, however a blanket judgement such as Chinese crystals are low quality and low vibrational, I feel could be taken as misinforming people, no offense.

As far as them being low vibrational, personally that claim doesn't bother me, as I really don't care about their metaphysical properties, however I will play devils advocate here, please hear me out. The Chinese have been using crystals for thousands of years. Feng Shui was a thing long before Judy hall wrote her crystal bible. There must of course be some sort of metaphysical benefit to their stones. I have a Chinese friend who lives in Donghai county in China that believes they have high spiritual powers, and he is not alone in his beliefs. I also have some personal 2nd hand experience witnessing the power of these stones. My wife got physically sick when I first started importing the large crystals, she says the power of them were overwhelming to her at first. She is very perceptive to energy flows. Also I had a visitor that experienced an energy jolt when touching my Tibetan smokey citrine cluster. Tibetan crystals are known in China to be very powerful as they are traditionally mined by hand. I also had a weird experience where my wife and I each found this really cool Tibetan clear quartz crysanthmum independent of each other, which is kind of freaky considering the thousands of specimens to choose from. Needless to say we bought the specimen. We also had an actual Tarot card reader come to visit us a few times. My wife babysits her dog, it's a long story but the point is that she actually works with crystals and she says she could feel a lot of energy flowing from the crystals. She also really loved our collection.

As far as them being low quality, I have gotten many compliments on their beauty. If you saw my either of my Tibetan specimens or my rainbow fluorite, I'm sure you would think they were pretty too. ( I'm not saying you would think they were the best just you would have to probably agree they were attractive, at least most do ) I don't just source whatever is the cheapest per pound, I go through pictures and camera angles and ask questions and take my time picking them out. They are not just a financial transaction they are art forms that I love.

I of course realize that certain crystals in certain regions tend to be of higher quality than other regions. The Pink tourmaline we are talking about in this thread is a good example. There is lots of pink tourmaline in China but even Tz'u Hsi realized the best gem quality came from U.S.A ( and perhaps afganistan/Pakistan ) Some of the best opals come from Australia for example. That being said, there is some really good finds to be had from China.

Another interesting fact about buying from China is that you can get stuff not mined in China sometimes. You will find this most interesting and it almost supports both arguments but one of my largest, most expensive and possibly most impressive specimen came from a Chinese seller ( a gigantic and beautiful Ocean Jasper ) but it was actually mined from Madagascar. A lot of Chinese are big into crystals and stones and collect them and deal with other stones that are not native to their region.

I'm not trying to say their the best, but high quality can come from there, and saying they are all low quality is a disservice to the crystals as a whole I believe. Perhaps a statement such as " high quality stones from china are difficult to find " might be a little easier for me to swallow. I have found some real gems there but also had to weed through lots of stuff that I would also call low quality, however I would suspect that could be said about many source countries. At least that's my thoughts and I hope this came across nicely as was my intention, just to share thoughts

[FairyCrystal]

Thanks for your reply, and yes, you have a good point :)
Tibet... I never include Tibetan crystals when I speak of Chinese crystals, hihi. And yes, those are very yummy and high vibrational. But I still think of Tibet as its own entity.
I know China has some interesting areas. There's this place/mountain connected with where they mine white jade, the Kunlun jade I mean. Not this 'new jade' stone. Now Kunlun is an area/mountains, but there was a specific mountain, and of course I cannot remember its name :/ A very spiritual place.
Funny enough Kunlun is also in the south, close to Tibet.
I have two allegedly Kunlun jade carvings. Allegedly, cos I know Kunlun jade is very expensive and these carvings weren't expensive at all. One is a Phoenix, the other a horse.
When I got them they had filled in the lines with that brown stuff to make them look antique. I got rid of that as I didn't like it. Both carvings were rather rough, not shiny. I held that phoenix a lot and after a relatively short period of time it began to shine. It now is completely shiny & smooth, not rough to the touch at all anymore. Then I found out this is what you get with real jade. If it resonates and you wear it, it starts to really shine.
So it is real jade for sure. Whether or not Kunlun, I don't know.
It never happened with the horse, but I also am not as crazy about that as I am with the Phoenix, haha.
Now suddenly recall the energy of that little horse was also seriously affected by how it got treated. It needed so much cleansing and healing, unreal. I've had it for some 8 years now, maybe at some point I'll get it to shine :)

As for China itself, it does make me wonder if there's any specific areas with strong energies, stronger than elsewhere in the country I mean, as it used to always be a very highly developed spiritual country. Not just Feng Shui, but also their healing abilities. Things Western science is only now beginning to discover that the Chinese already knew and applied thousands of years ago. That must've left an energetic imprint.

I know these days they also sell crystals from elsewhere, logical, there's money to be made in crystals. After all Chinese are a traders people. Not meant as a judgement, I'm Dutch, we are also a traders folk
Ifever I buy from China -which is rare as I got this great crystal shop 55 mins from me :) - I prefer sellers in Hong-Kong. Never had problems with them, they always ship fast, faster than the rest of China, their English is excellent too.

[moonincancer]

The Empress story and pic is very interesting! Thanks for sharing

[Crystal canuck]

Hi Moonincancer ! I am glad you liked the story. I found it quite fascinating. Sometimes people will ask each other what historical figure you would like to meet past or present. Other than the obvious answers like Jesus I would very much like to meet Tz'u Hsi, assuming of course we could understand each others language of course, otherwise it would be quite awkward

HI FairyCrystal ! You got me thinking about Jade again, so I looked up this Kunlun Jade, must say it looks quite angelic, and I can see why you like it. I would love to see a picture of your pheonix, some of the artists that carve Jade are real masters.

I believe the new Jade you are referring to is Nephrite, or sometimes called Korean Jade. Jade used to be considered one stone but now is split into two catagories, one being Nephrite and the other being Jadeite. Jadeite is considered the more valuable of the two, and is the classic Chinese stone prized for thousands of years. It's considered extremely lucky. I am considering getting a large piece of Jadeite ( from China of course ) the Chinese keep the " skins " on it and have certain areas exposed with raw Jadeite. At first I thought that was silly and I would peel the outer layers to expose more of the inner stone, ( sort of how maybe you feel about the false aging of your Pheonix ) however when I think about it more, I see what they are getting at, and I think I would leave the skins on them as well.

I agree with you about Hong Kong sellers in general. They do seem to have better shipping and English. I think maybe part of the attraction for me getting my crystals from China is that it's some far away almost mystical place that heightens the mystery and fascination. When I talk to the Chinese I find that crystals are really a big part of their culture and I find that quite endearing. ( especially mainland Chinese )I also find they go out of their way to please and package the items extremely safely. I just get an all around good vibe from these people. I can't really explain it totally, I know it's kind of weird.