"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. 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. Burmese marble, which ranges from pure white to bluish grey, is prized for its hardness and texture. A 45-tonne slab can sell for $40,000. In Sagyin, specks of the stone are used for everything from brushing teeth to washing clothes. "We grew up breathing the dust," said Chin Win, 35, who has been carving statues since he was 11 years old. "We use it as toothpaste, for soap powder, lipstick." The stone used to be chiselled by hand. Now, much of the work is done with machines. "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..."