The fine white dust that shrouds much of his northern Myanmar village also covers sculptor Chin Win as he leans over a half-finished Buddha statue.
"We are blessed to carve Buddha," he said at his stone workshop surrounded by the seven white hills that give Sagyin village its name, which means "marble" in Burmese.
Left: A marble mine in Sagyin. Right: A finished marble statue of a Buddha is left near Irrawaddy River to be transported by boat to a buyer.
For generations, artisans in this part of Buddhist-majority Myanmar have carved out a living from the marble, fashioning mostly colossal Buddha statues to be sold in the nearby city of Mandalay or exported to neighbouring China and Thailand.
Many of the several thousand villagers here earn a modest living from the marble mines, hauling the slabs down the hill, carving them into statues, or exporting them overseas.
Left: Mya Lay walks walks her daughter Kyawt Kyawt Lwin, 7, to school. Right: Marble dust covers the surface of a Buddhist altar at Lay's house.
"I was born in this village and for generations this is what we have done: the men work on marble carving and the women work in the marble mines or polish the marble statues," said 25-year-old Mya Lay, in a house fashioned from dry bamboo sheets, with a floor made of marble chippings.
Left: A marble carver makes measurements of a piece of marble as he carves a Buddhist statue. Right: Marble statues that were made in Sagyin are displayed for sale in a shop.
Myanmar has reported only 299 cases of the virus, and six deaths, but trade with China, which buys most of Sagyin's statues, has been hit.
The closure of the border between the two countries has meant Kyi Khaing, 49, has been unable to export his wares.
"The finished products are just sitting still," he said. "I haven't been able to deliver them anywhere. The buyers stopped coming as well."
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Still, Kyi Khaing thinks some things in Sagyin will remain constant.
"I believe until I die we will still have marble here," he said. "Anywhere you dig, there are marble stones."
PHOTO EDITING MARIKA KOCHIASHVILI; TEXT EDITING Karishma Singh; LAYOUT JULIA DALRYMPLE