Indians have been having a love affair with gold since ancient times. It's the world's largest consumer of gold, and most of the gold Indians own is in the form of jewelry (and most of that is wedding jewelry). Even the ancient Romans, who traded gold for spices, noted that the Indians wanted the gold for adornment and not for circulation. It's actually kind of an economic problem.
Here's a link to a great CBS special on India's love affair with gold. I love how it compares the Indian desire for gold with the American "dream" of home ownership. Gold is absolutely a sign of wealth and is meant to be economic protection for women, who might not own a single thing for themselves except for the gold chains around their necks.
The mania is obvious when you visit. Indians seem to love to adorn themselves and anything around them with flowers and jewelry, but gold is something special. I don't think I've seen a single Indian woman who did not have at least one gold chain around her neck, not to mention the bangles, earrings, nose rings, etc. And when I say earrings, I don't mean one puny stud in each ear. I mean huge, heavy, drooping earrings and studs up the side of the ear. Some pieces have a gold chain that connects the earring to the nose ring or a gold bar that connects the ear lobe to the cartilage at the top of the ear. And when I say gold chain around the neck, I don't mean a tiny chain, but a rope, sometimes with a pendant the size of a sheriff's badge. And this is everyday wear; don't get me started on the wedding jewelry.
It's not just the women. Most men wear gold rings and bracelets and chains, too, and many of them wear gold studs in their ears.
They start buying it for their children before they're born, and if it's a baby girl, they buy even more for her dowry. And why keep all that gold hidden away until the marriage? I saw a toddler with her mother at Samuel's preschool the other day, and it's a safe bet that the little girl (maybe 2 years old?) was wearing far more gold jewelry than I own.
Interesting side note: Most anklets and toe rings (which nearly all women also wear) are made of silver, because it isn't respectful or auspicious to wear gold below the waist.
The Storytrails tour guides do a jewelry trail, which tells about the importance of jewelry and the mythology that surrounds it. I've been trying to go on this trail for MONTHS, and every time I set it up either I couldn't make it or it got canceled for some other reason. I rounded up some friends who hadn't already gone on one of the trails I missed and finally got to see it in January.
We started outside the Kapaleeshwarar Temple in Mylapore, as we so often do.
Here's part of the group with our fearless guide leading us through the busy streets.
Our first stop was to the home of a traditional jeweler. He works in gold, silver and gems, though mostly in gold, and does it from his home, which was a modest, lower middle class home with absolutely no security. Here's the front hall leading into his living room and work area.
He told us he has several kilos of gold in the house at any given time, not to mention the little paper sacks of gemstones he kept pulling out of drawers and pouring out to show us. He's likely the last jewelry maker in a very long line. The job is related to his caste, and all the men in his family have been jewelers for generations. Traditional families have a jeweler just as you'd have a family doctor or lawyer, and this family of jewelers has served generations of the same families of customers. His own sons, though, won't be jewelers. They've gone to college and taken other jobs. Jewelers have never made a lot of money, despite the wealth with which they work, and the larger jewelry stores and factory construction have taken a lot of the artisans' customers.
While we were there, he was working on a gold earring. He pounded a lump of gold flat using a hammer and a blowtorch, and then he pulled the gold through a series of smaller and smaller holes to form a piece of gold wire that he planned to shape into the earring.
Here's a piece he had been working on for months that is nearly ready for delivery. It's made of gold, pearls, diamonds, and larger settings of seven of the nine Navaratna, or sacred gems. There's a set of earrings to go with the necklace that uses the other two gems. The gems are supposed to symbolize the nine mythological planets of Hinduism and are: ruby, pearl, red coral, emerald, yellow sapphire, diamond, blue sapphire, hessonite, and cat's eye. The ruby is almost always at the center of a Navaratna arrangement, because it symbolizes the sun. The necklace is worth several thousand US dollars.
Here's Janelle acting as our model ...
The jeweler showed us several pieces he's been working on as well as some of the gems in his current stock. The rubies in the upper right corner are fake, but everything else on the tray is real.
The jeweler spoke only Tamil, but through our guide/interpreter he told us that gems have mystical powers and may be a positive or negative influence in your life depending on your own horoscope. For this reason, many gemstone dealers and jewelers will allow you to take stones on trial for a few days before you buy. You're supposed to sleep with the stones under your pillow. If nothing bad happens within a few days, it's safe to buy them and you can take them back and negotiate a price. I was struck with how important trust is in jewelry dealings. Our guide told us this is why families will use the same family of jewelers for generations.
He also told us that his workroom is only swept once a week, and then the dirt is burned and any gold dust extracted.
Gold and silver are also used for worship. This is a silver piece he created based on a painting that hangs in his home.
The jeweler's wife watching our tour ...
We kept passing the tray around the room. Can't get enough bling!
The jeweler's house is in a neighborhood that's been devoted to jewelry for generations. There are streets where you go to buy jewelry and streets where you go to have it weighed or polished. This music store has nothing to do with jewelry, but it's cool anyway.
Most of the polishing goes on in this street. Our guide told us that most jewelry makers and sellers are Hindus, but the polishers are mostly Muslim, though many of them use Hindu names so as not to scare off their Hindu customers. The Hindus turned the polishing over to the Muslims when cyanide came into use as a polishing agent. Hindus were prone to suicide when times got bad, and they saw the Muslims as having more will power and therefore more right to have a bottle of cyanide in the house! The story seems crazy, but the sad truth is that suicide is an epidemic in India (and here). The story might well be true.
North Indian jewelry often has enamel work covering the back of the piece, while South Indian jewelry will either be an open setting or simply closed up in gold.
I'm not sure I could wear a single one of these necklaces. Too much.
Here's a link to a great CBS special on India's love affair with gold. I love how it compares the Indian desire for gold with the American "dream" of home ownership. Gold is absolutely a sign of wealth and is meant to be economic protection for women, who might not own a single thing for themselves except for the gold chains around their necks.
The mania is obvious when you visit. Indians seem to love to adorn themselves and anything around them with flowers and jewelry, but gold is something special. I don't think I've seen a single Indian woman who did not have at least one gold chain around her neck, not to mention the bangles, earrings, nose rings, etc. And when I say earrings, I don't mean one puny stud in each ear. I mean huge, heavy, drooping earrings and studs up the side of the ear. Some pieces have a gold chain that connects the earring to the nose ring or a gold bar that connects the ear lobe to the cartilage at the top of the ear. And when I say gold chain around the neck, I don't mean a tiny chain, but a rope, sometimes with a pendant the size of a sheriff's badge. And this is everyday wear; don't get me started on the wedding jewelry.
It's not just the women. Most men wear gold rings and bracelets and chains, too, and many of them wear gold studs in their ears.
They start buying it for their children before they're born, and if it's a baby girl, they buy even more for her dowry. And why keep all that gold hidden away until the marriage? I saw a toddler with her mother at Samuel's preschool the other day, and it's a safe bet that the little girl (maybe 2 years old?) was wearing far more gold jewelry than I own.
Interesting side note: Most anklets and toe rings (which nearly all women also wear) are made of silver, because it isn't respectful or auspicious to wear gold below the waist.
The Storytrails tour guides do a jewelry trail, which tells about the importance of jewelry and the mythology that surrounds it. I've been trying to go on this trail for MONTHS, and every time I set it up either I couldn't make it or it got canceled for some other reason. I rounded up some friends who hadn't already gone on one of the trails I missed and finally got to see it in January.
We started outside the Kapaleeshwarar Temple in Mylapore, as we so often do.
Here's part of the group with our fearless guide leading us through the busy streets.
Our first stop was to the home of a traditional jeweler. He works in gold, silver and gems, though mostly in gold, and does it from his home, which was a modest, lower middle class home with absolutely no security. Here's the front hall leading into his living room and work area.
He told us he has several kilos of gold in the house at any given time, not to mention the little paper sacks of gemstones he kept pulling out of drawers and pouring out to show us. He's likely the last jewelry maker in a very long line. The job is related to his caste, and all the men in his family have been jewelers for generations. Traditional families have a jeweler just as you'd have a family doctor or lawyer, and this family of jewelers has served generations of the same families of customers. His own sons, though, won't be jewelers. They've gone to college and taken other jobs. Jewelers have never made a lot of money, despite the wealth with which they work, and the larger jewelry stores and factory construction have taken a lot of the artisans' customers.
While we were there, he was working on a gold earring. He pounded a lump of gold flat using a hammer and a blowtorch, and then he pulled the gold through a series of smaller and smaller holes to form a piece of gold wire that he planned to shape into the earring.
Here's a piece he had been working on for months that is nearly ready for delivery. It's made of gold, pearls, diamonds, and larger settings of seven of the nine Navaratna, or sacred gems. There's a set of earrings to go with the necklace that uses the other two gems. The gems are supposed to symbolize the nine mythological planets of Hinduism and are: ruby, pearl, red coral, emerald, yellow sapphire, diamond, blue sapphire, hessonite, and cat's eye. The ruby is almost always at the center of a Navaratna arrangement, because it symbolizes the sun. The necklace is worth several thousand US dollars.
Here's Janelle acting as our model ...
The jeweler showed us several pieces he's been working on as well as some of the gems in his current stock. The rubies in the upper right corner are fake, but everything else on the tray is real.
The jeweler spoke only Tamil, but through our guide/interpreter he told us that gems have mystical powers and may be a positive or negative influence in your life depending on your own horoscope. For this reason, many gemstone dealers and jewelers will allow you to take stones on trial for a few days before you buy. You're supposed to sleep with the stones under your pillow. If nothing bad happens within a few days, it's safe to buy them and you can take them back and negotiate a price. I was struck with how important trust is in jewelry dealings. Our guide told us this is why families will use the same family of jewelers for generations.
He also told us that his workroom is only swept once a week, and then the dirt is burned and any gold dust extracted.
Gold and silver are also used for worship. This is a silver piece he created based on a painting that hangs in his home.
The jeweler's wife watching our tour ...
We kept passing the tray around the room. Can't get enough bling!
The jeweler's house is in a neighborhood that's been devoted to jewelry for generations. There are streets where you go to buy jewelry and streets where you go to have it weighed or polished. This music store has nothing to do with jewelry, but it's cool anyway.
Most of the polishing goes on in this street. Our guide told us that most jewelry makers and sellers are Hindus, but the polishers are mostly Muslim, though many of them use Hindu names so as not to scare off their Hindu customers. The Hindus turned the polishing over to the Muslims when cyanide came into use as a polishing agent. Hindus were prone to suicide when times got bad, and they saw the Muslims as having more will power and therefore more right to have a bottle of cyanide in the house! The story seems crazy, but the sad truth is that suicide is an epidemic in India (and here). The story might well be true.
Our next stop was a jewelry shop that sells northern style pieces. Here are some photos of jewelry from different regions of the country. And here's another article on Indian jewelry. And another.
North Indian jewelry often has enamel work covering the back of the piece, while South Indian jewelry will either be an open setting or simply closed up in gold.
I'm not sure I could wear a single one of these necklaces. Too much.
Our last stop was at a boutique that sells contemporary styles that are made from anything from gold and platinum to paper and seeds. Our guide told us that traditional Indian women wouldn't be caught dead in the new-fangled stuff, but that younger, more "Westernized" girls seem to like it. It made me think of my own jewelry collection, which runs heavily toward the wood and seed variety, with some glass, leather and fabric thrown in. I do have some silver, but I think my only gold pieces are my wedding and engagement rings.
We'll have to do something about that before leaving India, wouldn't you agree?
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