UAE: Meet the man keeping the ancient pearl-diving tradition alive

Khaleej Times

2 days ago

We waited with bated breath as our tour guide at the House of Pearls, Obaidullah, pricked open an oyster and gently peeled it apart to reveal its silken innards. His fingers moved through the fleshy folds as if coaxing a secret from the sea. If we were lucky, magic would emerge from the gooey mass. He searched — and lo, magic happened. A pearl, round and perfect, rolled to the surface, glistening like a baby born of the ocean's womb. We gasped. The moment felt like an eternity as Obaidullah picked up the pearl, rinsed it with salt, and placed it in our palms — to feel, to marvel at the beauty that had taken two years to come into being.
Nestled along the tranquil shores of Al Rams in Ras Al Khaimah, the House of Pearls stands as a living testament to the UAE's illustrious pearling legacy. Established in 2005 by Abdullah Rashed Al-Suwaidi, this unique pearl farm offers visitors a rare glimpse into a bygone era where the sea was both a source of sustenance and a percolator of Arabian dreams. Here, in the floating pontoon amid the gentle lapping of waves, the age-old tradition of pearl diving is not just remembered — it is relived. The farm's serene ambience, coupled with its commitment to authenticity, transports visitors back to a time when the pursuit of pearls was the heartbeat of coastal communities.
We listened in awe as tales surfaced of the early divers and their rigorous quests to fetch pearls from the seabed — men who dared the deep not for certainty, but for the rare glint of fortune that lay hidden beneath. Their lives were tethered to the ocean's whims, their worth measured by the few prized catches that made the peril worthwhile.
Pearl-diving slowly paled out of the UAE's economic marquee with the discovery of oil in the mid-20th century, but to Abdullah Rashed Al-Suwaidi, the legacy of an occupation that defined his ancestry was not a forgotten chapter of the past — it was a living heritage to be revived, revered, and retold.
Al-Suwaidi's lineage is deeply intertwined with the history of pearl diving in the UAE. Hailing from a family of esteemed divers dating back to the 12th and 13th centuries, he carries forward a legacy that was once the cornerstone of the nation's economy.
After earning a bachelor's degree in political science from the School of Public Affairs at the American University in Washington DC, he joined the UAE Foreign Service. His diplomatic journey took him to Australia and Japan before bringing him back to the Ministry of Social Affairs in his homeland. Yet, the tailored suits and corridors of power never truly fit him.
His heart ached for something deeper. His inner voice kept drawing him back to the seabed where his forefathers once dove, attuned to the sea's quiet rhythms, knowing when to hold their breath and when to rise — hands full of lustrous pearls.
'If you seek the pearl, be a diver,' Al-Suwaidi says, quoting Rumi, when we meet him in his soft-toned, elegant villa in Ras Al Khaimah. 'I realised I had been chasing the foam all along, while what I truly longed for was the pearl. And for that, I had to take the plunge and dive deep.' That awakening became the compass for his life's mission: to revive the ancient tradition of pearl diving by establishing the first pearl farm in the Middle East.
'The foam is on the shore, but the pearl lies in the deep,' Al-Suwaidi reflects, his reflecting voice touching something ethereal. Then, almost as if addressing the sea within each of us, he poses a gentle question: 'In this journey of life, which one would you rather seek — foam or pearl?'
To him, the distinction is not just metaphorical; it is moral and existential. 'Seeking the pearl,' he continues, 'is a journey with purpose. It calls for courage, patience, and surrender. It demands that you leave the surface and descend into depths unknown. The foam is easy, temporary, available to all. But the pearl? That takes a diver.'
In his words lies a quiet cue — not just to remember a vanishing heritage, but to live deliberately, diving beneath life's distractions to find what truly endures.
'I am the only traditional living pearl-diver today,' he says not with a hint of pride, but with a quiet sense of gratitude and humility. It is the humility of a man who has straddled life's many realms and finally settled where the soul seeks stillness. 'I go backward, to my roots, not forward. I don't wear a watch. I don't use much technology. I don't drive a car. Wooden boats are my favourites. This is my way of mimicking history, of keeping the past alive,' he reflects, anchoring himself to a way of life that the modern world has long left behind in its haste for the ephemeral.
With summer approaching, it is time once again for the pearl-diver in Al-Suwaidi to head to the treasure-beds of nature — to dive for wild pearls, whose value far exceeds that of the cultured ones he harvests at his farm. The farm may have made him an entrepreneur, but its purpose transcends commerce. His mission is clear: to restore the pearl to its rightful place in the UAE's cultural imagination.
Visitors come from far and wide, drawn by the allure of the sea and the mysteries it holds. They listen in rapt attention as they are told how oysters craft their pearls, how long the process takes, and the hardships faced by divers of old — those who braved the waters long before motorboats and scuba diving techniques evolved.
'The oysters are still in the sea. The wooden boats are still sail-worthy. Why then should we leave our heritage and the pearls behind?' Al-Suwaidi's question lingers amid the clutter of a new world riding on a diversified economy. The House of Pearls is not just a museum or a farm — it is a living bridge, connecting the salt-washed past to the shifting present. He proves, with his steadfast love for the pearl, that it is still relevant to our culture and to our sense of beauty and natural wonder.
Al-Suwaidi's undersea exploits sound like a mythical story — a story that he lives every day of his life. So submerged is he in the tales of the sea that he seems less like a man and more like a living motif of a vanishing era, preserved by purpose and passion.
'Pearl and peace — they both have five letters,' he says, pointing to the quiet symbolism of his life's pursuit. 'I don't belong here, in this world of sickness, politics, clashes, and war. I live in my world. I go under the sea, talk to the creatures, and find my spot of calm there.'
It's a telling confession from a man who once rubbed shoulders with celebrities, dignitaries, world leaders, and even the former emperor of Japan during his 15-year tenure as a diplomat. The transition
from high-flying envoy to pearl-diver began when the life he led started to feel hollow. A single question nagged him constantly: Who am I, really?
'The person you see when I come out of the water — that's the real me. Not this one you see now,' he says with the solemnness of a saint.
Raised by his grandparents, Al-Suwaidi was captivated early by the mysteries of the sea. Their stories, steeped in wisdom and wonder, planted in him the seeds of reverence for a way of life already slipping into memory. Their love, their compassion, the values they cherished — he absorbed it all, and made it his quiet mission to keep that legacy alive.
He finds it difficult to comprehend the reality of the pearl industry collapsing in the wake of newer ways to create wealth. When the rest of the nation began moving towards the new oil-based economy, Al-Suwaidi chose to remain rooted in a past that boasts the discovery of the oldest pearl in the world. Dubbed the Abu Dhabi Pearl, it is 8,000 years old and is on display at the Louvre Museum.
Despite all his efforts to revive public interest in pearl diving and farming, Al-Suwaidi maintains that he is merely doing his part as an individual devotee of the gemstone — not intending to be a catalyst coaxing others into adopting it as a profession. He is cognizant of the fact that it would require a concerted, collective effort to bring the pearl back into the spotlight as a viable industry.
Whether that happens in the future or not, all that Al-Suwaidi seeks to do now is surrender to the serene grandeur of the pearl — as an individual enthusiast who loves the sea. He isn't thinking of legacies, for he recognises that carrying them forward is not in his hands. But for now, he is a trader with the mind of a historian, a pearl-diver with the heart of a poet, and a wanderer with the soul of a Sufi.