Thirty-two miles north of Mandalay on the road to Mogok, if you turn off the highway, you come across the village of Sagyin. The village is at the bottom of a mountain of fine white marble. The villagers make their living mining and carving the white marble. The marble is highly prized and exported all over the world. Carvings can vary from small figurines to huge life-sized elephants weighing several tons. Sagyin has to be one of the dustiest places on the planet - the entire village and surrounding area is coated in a thick layer of white dust. If you weren't in the tropics, you would almost think it had been snowing!

Cattle hearders on the Mandalay - Myitkyinar highway just before turning off to Sagyin.

A temple in Sagyin covered in marble dust giving a wintery feel!

The early stages of carving Buddha statues. Many of them are exported to China & Taiwan.

At Sagyin there are some small deposits of rubies, sapphires and spinels. Some pieces show colour comparable with those found in Mogok (see below).

Villagers coming out to show parcels of rubies. Most pieces were small.

Villagers selling fried prawns in batter on the side of the road.

A villager carving Buddha statues in the yard of his home. Many of the Buddha statues are carved without finishing the face. This will be completed once the statue is sold and then carved to the buyer's requirements.

Carved marble elephants. The women in this picture were polishing these carvings by hand using wet & dry sand paper. They told me it would take three months to finish polishing the elephants.

More food vendors on the side of the road in Sagyin.

The early stages of carving a huge boulder of white marble.

Probably the biggest diamond saw I have ever seen. Used for cutting through marble boulders.