Turquoise is an opaque blue to green stone, a hydrated phosphate of copper and aluminum. People have worn it for thousands of years, from ancient Egypt and China to Persia, Tibet and the American Southwest, and it is a traditional birthstone for December.
Sky blue, green and matrix
Turquoise forms in dry regions, where copper-rich groundwater seeps down and reacts with rock that holds aluminum and phosphorus. Copper gives the blue. Iron in the stone can shift it toward green. The most prized shade is an even, medium sky blue, which the trade calls "Persian blue" wherever the stone was mined.
Many stones carry brown or black veins called matrix. These are remnants of the rock the turquoise grew in. When the veins form a fine net, the stone is known as spiderweb turquoise.
Why so much turquoise is treated
Turquoise is porous and fairly soft, 5 to 6 on the Mohs scale. Skin oils, cosmetics and heat can change its color. For this reason much of the turquoise on the market is stabilized: soaked with a clear acrylic or epoxy resin that hardens in the pores and makes the stone tougher and more even in color. Pale stones may be dyed a deeper blue. Reconstituted turquoise is made from small fragments or powder bonded into a solid block. Dyed howlite and magnesite are common look-alikes that contain no turquoise at all.
Turquoise in Tibet
"As jade is the recognized jewel of the Chinese, so turquois is the standard gem of the Tibetans," wrote the Field Museum scholar Berthold Laufer in 1913. The Tibetan word for it, gyu, is native to the language rather than borrowed from Sanskrit or Chinese, a sign of how long Tibetans have known the stone. Laufer described turquoises handed down from mother to daughter for generations. In Ladakh a bride generally received, on her wedding day, many of the turquoises her mother had worn. In Tibet it has long been treasured as a stone of good fortune and protection from evil.
Persia and the American Southwest
Turquoise has been mined in the Nishapur district of northeastern Iran for more than a thousand years. Its Persian name, piruzeh, carries the meanings of victory, triumph and prosperity, and Persian poets celebrated it. The English name came later. It comes from a French phrase meaning "Turkish stone," because the gem probably first reached Europe from Turkish sources.
Native peoples of the Southwest have used turquoise in jewelry and ceremony, and traded it, for more than a thousand years. Ancestral Puebloans mined it in the Cerrillos Hills near Santa Fe, New Mexico, and archaeologists have traced some of the turquoise found at Chaco Canyon to those mines. Pueblo tradition holds that turquoise took its color from the sky. An Apache belief says you can find it by following a rainbow to its end.
Birthstone and care
Turquoise shares December with tanzanite and zircon, and it is the gem of the 11th wedding anniversary. Put it on after perfume, lotion and makeup, and wipe it with a soft cloth after wearing. Clean it with warm, soapy water, never with steam or ultrasonic cleaners, and keep it away from high heat and household chemicals. A turquoise mala is used like any other, one bead for each mantra. See also our malas and pendants.
Turquoise at Buddha.store
- Tibetan Turquoise Mala Bracelet, 108 Beads
- Turquoise 108 Bead Mala Bracelet
- Turquoise Beaded Bracelet with 14k Gold Plated Clasp
- Tibetan Turquoise Multi-Wrap Mala Bracelet
- Sea Turtle Turquoise Bracelet
- Turquoise Multi-Layer Wrap Bracelet
See every piece in our Turquoise collection.
