It is in the street of the marble sculptors of Mandalay that we meet Lar Min.
Lar Min is a sculptor of Buddhas. He started working at the age of 15, and he is now 29 years old.
He carves only the heads of Buddhas, except the hair. At first he had to learn a few months to know how to sculpt. In its beginnings there was no circular saw to cut the stone quickly, all done with hammer and chisel.
He tells us that he must eat bananas after his days of work to “evacuate” the marble dust he swallows. I ask him why he does not wear a mask? And he tells us that he can not work easily with a mask on his face. Then he explains that he eats on average 30 leaves of betel mixed with walnuts. It costs him approx. 1500 kts ($ 1), but he can not do without it has become for him an addiction.
Of the nicotine contained in these leaves. He is married with children. He works every day of the week except on Buddhist holidays. To respect the proportions of the sizes of the eyes, the ears, the neck he uses the size of his thumbs, his hand or his fingers, it is a little the only reference of measurement that he has to carve the faces In the right proportions and he does not draw on the stone for indications.
The sculptor of Buddhas.
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