Malaya garnet is a transparent orange to reddish orange variety of garnet. The Malaya garnet is known as a hybrid garnet. This is because it is a mixture of the spessartine and pyrope varieties of garnet. A relatively modern gemstone, the Malaya garnet was discovered in the 1960s.
Malaya garnet gets its name from the Swahili word for ‘outcast.’ When the Malaya variety of garnet was discovered, it didn’t correspond with existing garnet varieties and so was seen as an outcast of the mineral group. Malaya garnet deposits have been found in Madagascar and Tanzania.
