This month’s featured mineral is Rain Flower Agate from Nanijing, China. For those of you who periodically check which Lake Superior agates are listed on Ebay, you have seen the listings for these “Lake Superior-Like” agates. Rain Flower agates are river washed to a smooth surface featuring translucent, rich, banding patterns. They are found near the ancient site of the Gaozuo Temple and are featured at a museum located on the site. They are so admired that they were taken by the Chinese delegation to the 24th Seoul Olympic Games to represent “Peace Lucky Stone.”
A legend says that during the Liang of Southern Dynasties (502-557), Master Monk Yunguang placed a table on top of the local terrace and expounded the texts of Buddhism. Apparently, this so moved the God that the heaven rained flowers, which later became beautiful and colorful agate stones.
Yuhashi, or rain flower agate, is a compound of quartzite, flint and agate.