Myanmar is a beautiful country, rich in land and water resources and natural beauty. Mountains and forests are not only beautiful, but also beneficial to the people and the country, as natural resources.

Sagyin Hill is a place where alabaster (or) marble stones are produced for the art of sculpturing. Sagyin Hill is situated in Mattaya Township, in Mandalay Division. Although people has produced and used, marble stones from Sagyin Hill for their sculpturing works since the Amarapura and Yadanapon eras, the resources from this hill are still not exhausted. Sagyin Hill is known as the hill given by Lord Buddha, with the local people. The people of Mattaya Township practice the art of Myanma Traditional Sculpture as their lively-hood. Handicraft sculpture work is the economy of Sagyin village. Now, let’s follow how a sculpture work. Firstly the sculptor draws the picture he chooses to sculpture, on the raw marble stone. And then, he uses chisels of all sizes to carve the stone with. So, in a way you can say there are a connection between the art of sculpture and the art of sculpture and the art of wood carving and painting.

Alabaster stones are sent to Mandalay, to a place called Kyauk-Hsit-Tan, where most of them are sculptured into Buddha images.

When carving Buddha images, the sculptors have to measure the stone systematically. Firstly, he makes a rough measure on the stone with charcoal. Then, he sculptures the stone with a chisel, spit and file. There are 7 steps to follow, when carving a Buddha image. They are moulding, covering of lower garment, weaving of the robe on the hand, carving Buddha image’s face, rubbing with the file, smoothing of the stonework and painting of the image. The skillful persons sculpture the image’s hand, face and robe proportionately. The women rub the stone image to smooth it out.

The flawless marble stone was excavated from Sagyin Hill and a rough sketched Buddha image was carved out of this marble stone in Sagyin Village. After that, it was conveyed by water-route to Mindhamma Hill in Yangon where they fine sculptured the Buddha image for worshipping.

Besides using the alabaster stones to carve Buddha images, they are also used as stone pillars and religious statues. People decorate their houses with various kinds of sculptured images. Now, the sculptured images are being exported to foreign countries, as it has become popular not only in Myanmar, but also abroad.