When gold is hammered into extremely thin sheets it is referred to as gold leaf. There are many gold leaf beating workshops in Myanmar where skilled craftsmen will beat the gold. In several pagodas you can buy squares of gold leaf to put onto a Buddha statue and many stupas have been covered in gold leaf instead of gold paint, this is called 'gilding'. In order to create gold leaf, the gold and its alloy are rolled until the bar is as thin as 1/1000 of an inch which is then cut into inch squares. These squares are then beaten with a hammer at a speed of up to 70 times a minute for one hour until they have expanded. It is then cut up again and beaten again, and this process is repeated until the sheet of gold is 1/250,000 of an inch thick.