Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c28.s8.t5.30

v1.c28.s8.t5.30

Lo Bue (1981a: 54-57, 59-61 and 67) has reviewed the occurrence of the mercury ore cinnabar, silver and gold in Tibet. Cinnabar desposits have been available in the central, eastern and south-eastern Tibet. There are reports of Tibetan castings of silver being presented to China in 824 AD. Though averse to sub-surface mining, the people of Ladakh and Tibet always recovered gold washings from river and other placer deposits ever since the era of Herodotus’s tale of ‘gold-digging ants’. When the Tibetan students used to visit the Buddhist monasteries in Bihar and invite the celebrated teachers like Atīśa Dīpaṅkara to visit Tibet, one of the commonest presents they offered was gold (dust or bar). Thus it seems that the Tibetans never lacked in the raw materials for gilding; what they received from the Nepalese and Indians was the necessary technology.