Photo of the Day 434

Gold Smelting, Yangon (Rangoon), Myanmar (Burma), 1984

Photograph by James L. Stanfield

A goldsmith smelts bars of donated gold for use in the famed Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon (Rangoon), Myanmar (Burma). The 2,500-year-old shrine is said to house several strands of the Buddha's hair, among other sacred relics.

(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Time and Again in Burma," July 1984, National Geographic magazine)