The word “tourmaline” comes from the Sinhala thoramali or thuramali.  Sinhala, an Indo-Aryan language, is the official language of Sri Lanka (called Ceylon until 1972) and the exact meaning of these words remains difficult to discern. According to some, they refer to carnelian, “colored stones” or, quite simply, different stones from Sri Lanka. The...

One of the most attractive colors in gemstones is pink. Pink diamonds of superior quality and in dimensions of several carats hover around numbers that carry five zeros … to the carat! Pink sapphires, called padparadscha, are also highly sought after, although they never weigh more than two carats. Some pink tourmalines are considered among the pink stones of great beauty, but it is also...