gems, beryl, emerald, Colombia, India, Jaipur, emerald trade, Jainism, politics, anthropology

The Indian emerald trade has traditionally been controlled by members of the Jain religious community, who are deeply pious and ascetic. By contrast, the emerald business outside India is rife with violence, deception, sexual exuberance, and a strong attachment to shiny green stones, suggesting a contradiction between the ideals of Jain piety and their participation in such an impious economy. Yet Jain traders and philosophers insist there is no contradiction. In Jaipur’s Johari Bazaar, Hindus and Muslims join their Jain counterparts, and together these three religious communities have created a space of peaceful, profitable, and predictable exchange in the global gemstone economy. Photography has long been integral to the gemstone trade, but rarely does it reveal the lives of the men who mine, manufacture, and distribute these stones worldwide. This photo essay situates them in their social, economic, and especially religious contexts, showing how the emerald trade follows the contours of religious communities. While photographs cannot convey the full substance of a religious ethic, they can portray people enacting those ethics in daily life.