Gold pounders striking the gold to make it paper-thin.

Workers get bad backs after 10 years of work and usually at the age of 45 is when they stop because the body can’t take any more.

This is a water clock that tells the gold pounders when to take a break. It is a coconut shell placed in a pot of water. The shell has a small hole in it and it takes 1 hour to fill up and sink. When this happens, they rest for 15 minutes.

The hammer they use weighs 3 kilograms.

One of the stacks of gold leaves being pounded.

Gold pounder checking the leaves.

Gold leaves ready to be packaged.

Woman in gold workshop preparing the leaves to be sold.

Buddha covered in gold-leaf.