The Marble 'living Buddhas' Trapped By Myanmar's Civil War

Mandalay, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 5th Nov, 2024) Sculptor Aung Naing Lin has spent decades carving Buddha statues to help guide Myanmar's faithful -- but getting the marble he needs from rebel-held quarries in the midst of civil war is now a perilous task.

Buddhist-majority Myanmar has been mired in bloody conflict since the military toppled the government of Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, terminating a 10-year experiment with democracy and sparking a widespread armed uprising.

In recent months, opponents of the military have advanced with rocket and drone attacks on Mandalay -- the country's second-biggest city, with a population of 1.5 million.

The rebels have also seized the hillside quarries that have for generations provided the marble that adorns Mandalay's palaces and monasteries, as well as the shrines in ordinary homes.

Now, moving the precious stone and roughly carved statues by truck across the divide of the civil war, from rebel to junta-held territory, is expensive, difficult and dangerous.

"The situation around the Madaya township (where the quarries are located) is not very good," Aung Naing Lin told AFP at his noisy workshop in Mandalay, his face and hair speckled with white dust.

"It is not easy to go, and we cannot bring the stones back.

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Surrounded by dozens of blank-faced Buddha statues waiting to be given eyes, ears and lips, Min Min Soe agreed.

"Sales are not that bad, but the challenge is bringing the statues here," he said.

"We can sell only the statues we have here and we cannot bring new raw statues in."

The owner of another workshop, who did not want to be named, said associates of his were recently arrested when taking a shipment of marble from rebel-held Madaya.

"They were detained by the local military column and were asked how they brought the stones out from the village as that area was controlled by the PDF," they said.

"People's Defence Forces" are units made up of former students, farmers and workers who have left their lives behind to take up arms and oppose the junta's coup.

There are dozens of PDFs across the country, and they have dragged the junta into a bloody stalemate.

The junta has designated them as "terrorists", and contact with them can bring years in prison.

"Later, they released the people who had been detained and gave the stones back," the workshop owner said.

"It's like a warning to all. We dare not to bring stones from the village under this situation."