The Buddha factory
Myanmar’s Zagyin village has a special claim to fame: it is such a huge producer of Buddha statues that it is sometimes dubbed the second birthplace of Buddha.
Zagyin – whose name means marble – is home to the marble mine pictured above. Reuters photographer Soe Zeya Tun documented the operation that churns out the religious sculptures for which the village is known.
A woman holds out rubies that she found at a marble mine at Zagyin.
Workers labour at the mine.
A worker uses a pneumatic drill to break rocks.
A woman carries marble stones on her head.
Another woman carries soil.
Boys walk past a Buddha sculpture at a marble mine.
A man sculpts marble stones as he sits amid half-made Buddha sculptures.
A sculptor works on a huge statue.
A Buddha statue is seen in Zagyin.
