Making Buddha

Outside the Mahamuni Temple in Mandalay, Myanmar there is a whole street where stone masons can be found toiling away on stone statues of Buddha. The working conditions there are truly atrocious, with little respect for the health of the workers or the general environment. Work is carried out without protective masks, protective gloves or any kind of dust extraction systems. It is disturbing to witness workers, especially children, labouring in such circumstances – their faces sweating and caked with a crust of choking dust. The result of breathing in these dangerous concentrations of dust will surely see these people suffering from lung diseases and other respiratory problems. An early death is almost certainly guaranteed …