Myanmar: Mandalay – Gold Pounders Workshop

Myanmar is a nation deeply obsessed with gold – golden Buddhas, golden pagodas, golden temples. If almost feels that any and all income goes toward purchasing gold leaf and then wrapping it around some buddha. Almost all of the Myanmar’s gold leaf comes from Mandalay, where a number of workshops pound gold into waffle thin tiny squares that are then sold in temples. It takes hours of manually pounding gold pellets to achieve the necessary thinness.