MYANMAR
TURQUOISE MOUNTAIN
YANGON
Turquoise Mountain was established in 2006 by His Majesty King Charles III to revive historic areas, traditional crafts and communities, in order to provide jobs, education and a renewed sense of pride.
Since 2006, they have restored 150 historic buildings in Yangon and Kabul, trained over 6,000 artisans, treated over 136,000 patients at their clinic, and curated major international exhibitions at museums around the world, from the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha to the Smithsonian in Washington D.C.
Turquoise Mountain have also worked with five-star hotels and prestigious retailers, including the Four Seasons and Rosewood hotels, Pippa Small, Kate Spade, Bloomingdales, Holt Renfrew, Asprey, Fortnum & Mason, and The Conran Shop.
They now support craftswomen and men in Afghanistan, Myanmar, and the Middle East.
Turquoise Mountain is working with talented goldsmiths in Yangon to create heritage-inspired and custom pieces using these semi-precious stones for today’s international designers and buyers. Their meticulous goldsmiths are all natives of Ramree Island in Southern Rakhine, which has a goldsmithing tradition going back to the sixth century. Using gold, gemstones, and pearls from the Bay of Bengal, they create small and timeless works of art.
Visit the Turquoise Mountain Website
We were delighted to be invited by Turquoise Mountain to design a collection using their exquisite natural resources of native gold and spinel crystals.
SOCIAL IMPACT
Decades of international isolation and sanctions have made Myanmar one of the poorest countries in Southeast Asia, with a third of the population living in poverty. Through artisan support, technical training, product development assistance, and business training, Turquoise Mountain is helping over 300 artisans across the country to generate sustainable incomes and support their families. Their apprenticeship programme is also supporting the next generation of goldsmiths in Yangon to learn from masters of the craft. By sourcing their stones directly from the women of the historic Mogok Valley, who hand cut them in traditional workshops, they are thus able to ensure a shorter supply chain.
TURQUOISE MOUNTAIN MYANMAR ARTISANS
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Ko Tin Win
Master goldsmith
© Turquoise Mountain
Ko Tin Win has been a goldsmith for 20 years, and takes great pride in his craft. He brings a deep philosophy and creativity to his work, describing his process as “close to meditating”. Since 2016, he has worked as a master goldsmith at the Turquoise Mountain workshop and has helped create iconic pieces in collaboration with international designers. “To me this job is very important, it gives me a stable income,” he says. “With this income I support my family, wife, child and my sister’s education. It is good to have an organisation like Turquoise Mountain, which prevents the culture and traditional handicrafts from changing towards mass production with heavy machinery. I always prefer the traditional way of making jewellery, it makes me feel that jewellery making is a kind of art... I would like to share my knowledge with all those who are interested in traditional crafts and their preservation. I want to open a school for crafts for the sake of future generations and to promote artisanal skills.”
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Ye Myo Aung
Apprentice
© Turquoise Mountain
Ye Myo Aung lives with his mother in Minbya Township, Rakhine State. He learned about the Turquoise Mountain apprenticeship programme through a friend who was also an apprentice and decided to apply. During the first two months of the programme, Ye Myo Aung learned to roll silver into sheets, a process that he particularly enjoyed. He found soldering metal a little harder at first, but has learned quickly and is progressing well. Ye Myo Aung hopes to start his own goldsmithing workshop in his hometown after he graduates. He loves listening to music and travelling, and is especially inspired by cultural heritage sites, such as Mrauk-U.
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Ye Min Paing
Apprentice
© Nina Hamilton for Turquoise Mountain
Ye Min Paing joined a goldsmith workshop as a teenager and learned how to create simple designs for earrings, chains and rings. Unfortunately, he had to quit the workshop after a short time in order to help his mother with her work - making fabric dolls for a crafts business. He joined Turquoise Mountain as an apprentice in our jewellery workshop and graduated last year. Now employed full time as a Junior Goldsmith, Ye Min Paing is determined to earn a good income and support his mother. He loves making flowers such as jasmine, roses and orchids, because he believes their “beauty reflects happiness.”
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Ma Thiri Khaing Kyaw
Apprentice
© Turquoise Mountain
Ma Thiri Khaing Kyaw is a Yangon native and lives with her mother. Before joining Turquoise Mountain’s apprenticeship programme, she helped her family run their restaurant. When she came across Turquoise Mountain’s goldsmith apprentice programme, she was intrigued by the fact that women were welcomed - she had never thought of goldsmithing as a woman’s job. Following her childhood dream of opening a small jewellery shop, she applied to the programme to learn the skills she would need to be successful. “I came to the programme with no prior knowledge or experience in goldsmithing,” she says. “Everything I have learned here is valuable. Local master goldsmiths taught me a lot too. Each goldsmith has his own way of making products and it is fascinating to observe their different ideas and thinking processes.” Thiri is now working with our goldsmiths to complete orders for international clients and has worked on pieces that have sold in Los Angeles and London.