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span class="caption" style="width: 398px;">Finishing: The workshop of semi-precious stone miner Timbul is dusty with the cutting and grinding of stones.It is a tortuous route into East Java’s heart of stones.

Narrow switchback tracks a kilometer above sea level fold sharply ever upwards through one of Java’s densest mountain ranges between Pule and Pacitan, an endless sea of vertiginous up-thrusts that brings on a suffocating panic.

Once on this road there is no turning back. It is a crawling, creeping pace hour after relentless hour before the last downhill run into Pacitan, 10 hours of solid concentration covering just 100 kilometers to seek out the legendary agate of the region.

Agate from the Pacitan area is believed to be the finest in Indonesia, according to middle-aged agate miner Timbul, who has been seeking precious stones in the Donorojo hills of East Java since he was a child.

“I started [mining] stones as a child back in 1968. It comes from my ancestors. I am the third generation here to mine — my ancestors started back in 1935 and Donorojo is the center of agate in Indonesia until this day,” says Timbul in his roadside kiosk in the village of Gendaran in the foothills above the seaside town of Pacitan — best known as President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s birthplace.

Timbul’s workshop floor is littered with rounded stones, and the sound of cutting and grinding splinters the quiet of the little town. His kiosk is laden with dusty glass cases filled to overflowing with polished brick red agate, mysterious mauve amethyst, ghostly white moonstones, merah hati (crimson) stone, and stones encrusted with druzy.

“This is the only place in the world that has druzy,” says Timbul of this moonstone-type semiprecious gem. Druzy are exposed diamond-like crystals that shimmer and glint with their own light in the shadowed depths of Timbul’s humble kiosk of faded paintwork and sagging timbers; a most unlikely home for these glowing gems hewn from the local mountains.

Precious: At a roadside kiosk near Pacitan, East Java, stones mined in the area are available for sale.His decades with the stones have created in Timbul a reverence for these gifts from the earth that
have supported his family over the years. One stone in particular has brought blessings to his home, Timbul believes.

“The best stone I have ever found is a panca warna [multicolored] stone. Look, it has a perfect yin and yang symbol in the middle. For this stone I have been offered Rp 20 million [US$2,180], but I won’t ever sell because the stone gives me luck. When I bring this stone to mine the hills, it’s easy to find the stones. This panca warna is like a guide to find good stones. When you wear this, it’s like the stones in the earth jump out of the ground to me; that is my feeling and that is why I have priced it at Rp 150 million, so people don’t buy it,” says Timbul polishing the stone on his shirtsleeve with awe for its mystical powers.

His sense of the divine in his hunt for stones is acknowledged with prayers prior to scratching at the earth to reveal its treasures.

“Before we dig, we pray in our Javanese way. It’s an interior prayer that we do because, according to my ancestors, the stones are protected by souls living nearby, so we have to ask the owner, these souls, for permission to dig for the stones. It’s a prayer inside my heart, we do this so we don’t disturb the souls guarding the stones,” says Timbul of the deep respect he brings to his work. He points out mining for the agate, amethyst, panca warna or moonstones, forming silently over millennia deep in the surrounding mountain, is unlike the ferocious mining of marble on the far eastern side of this mountain range.

“Here, we dig the stones from the soil, but we don’t use heavy equipment. There is only one way to uncover these stones and that is by digging by hand. We dig and if there is nothing, we move on to another patch. Sometimes you are just lucky and come across a special stone like this crystal druzy. Marble is easy because you can see it. It’s right there in the mountain and you just carve it out, but with these stones you might find a kilogram [of rough material] in a day, or you might find 50 kg, it depends,” says Timbul whose roadside kiosk in the middle of nowhere has a loyal following.

Tools of the trade: Timbul’s tools line a wall of his workshop.Sorting through a box of semi-precious stones nestled on faded and fraying black velvet, Ibu Sutarto seeks out a starling egg-sized merah siam, or Thai red stone.

“I’m here to buy a merah siam. It is believed this stone helps strengthen self confidence. This [confidence] is given to the wearer from the strength in the stone,” says Sutarto, who explains she buys regularly from Timbul’s kiosk.

“I come here to buy stones for friends and family. This kiosk is the center for good stones. Timbul is really well-known and sells only real stones — if a stone is good he says so and if it’s not so good he also says so,” says Sutarto who wears on her left wrist a bead bracelet of amethyst, agate and merah siam.

“I bought this here years ago. These stones unite my soul,” says Sutarto who, like Timbul, believes in the mystical healing power of these stones born in the heart of their local mountains.

— Photos by J.B. Djwan