These products are real gems, made of banana leaf mache, a material used for a wide range of everyday products in Thailand, then coated in a layer of gold leaf.

Gold leaf held in high esteem in Thailand, valued for its purity and used as an offering to the gods. Worshippers affix a small square of it onto statues of Buddha, forming a beautiful, continuously growing gold film over the original statue. Booklets of gold leaf are sold outside all temples and are considered a part of everyday life too.