http://www.buygemstone.net The best resource for rare gems! Fri, 26 Dec 2008 00:46:57 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Bats and beaked birds, plaques and pendants, and even jade inserts and fillings for the teeth, club heads, ear ornaments, lip and nose plugs, and almost any other object imaginable were produced by the thousands. All of it perished in the sudden onslaught of a foreign culture. The subsequent poverty ... http://www.buygemstone.net/maoris-jade/ Utilitarian jade was still in evidence up to the end of Aztec times. Jade wedges, spears, axes, and knives, like those made in the earliest times, remained in use right up to the sixteenth century. Central America never really moved from the stone age to the metal age. Metal drills ... http://www.buygemstone.net/utilitarian-jade/ To all the Central Americans the magical values of jade depended more on its color and rarity than on any of its mineralogical properties. At the same time, its superior carving characteristics were recognized. It was the Aztec government which inadvertently left the strongest clues as to the sources of ... http://www.buygemstone.net/central-america-jade/ All sorts of attempts have been made to link the Central American and Chinese jade cultures by seeking out the few details that are similar. It is fairly obvious, however, that the two developed independently. There is still considerable confusion about the boundaries in time and space of the various ... http://www.buygemstone.net/central-america-and-chinese-jade/ The carving skills and techniques of the ancient Central American cultures never approached those of the Chinese. There is no question that aesthetically and artistically, the imaginative carvings of the western hemisphere have just as strong an impact as any made on the other side of the world. Ample archeological ... http://www.buygemstone.net/jade-carving-skills/ Li T'ieh-kuai is always shown as a crippled beggar with a crutch. He had the misfortune of returning in spirit too late from the Celestial Regions to prevent his empty body from being destroyed. Hastily he entered the body of a dying beggar, which body became his own for the ... http://www.buygemstone.net/jade-figures/ The Kuei, Ch'ang, Hu, and Huang are all flat, like the Pi, but unlike the Ts'ung. Possibly derived from the shape of a primitive knife blade, the Kuei was rather plain in its early versions. A symbol of the East, or Spring, and of Imperial Power, it became customary to ... http://www.buygemstone.net/the-kuei-chang-hu-and-huang/ As if all the symbols mentioned were not enough, China accumulated increasing numbers of them through the long centuries. Buddhism brought along the Eight Happy Omens and the Seven Gems. Taoism added the Eight Emblems of the Taoist Immortals. There are the Hundred Antiques, the Eight Precious Things, and other ... http://www.buygemstone.net/jade-in-budhism/ The Yang-Yin symbol is one of the easiest to recognize and understand. It represents the two opposite, conflicting forces found in every action, and which are responsible for the dynamic universe. Yang is male, positive, and represented by the Sun. Yin is female, negative, and represented by the Moon. The ... http://www.buygemstone.net/jade-and-ying-yang/ Although no one knows the earliest techniques and tools for sure, rubbing-sticks of various designs, sand abrasive, and quantities of time and patience were all that the ancients seemed to use. Introduction of the rotary drill made it possible to add dimension and detail to the carvings, and to make ... http://www.buygemstone.net/11/