Most harps you might see - big concert harps, Celtic harps - stand on the ground. The saung is different: the player sits cross-legged on the floor and rests the wooden body of the harp on their lap. The curving golden neck rises up to the right. The strings are plucked with the fingernails, very gently.
There are 13 or 14 silk strings, tuned to a special Myanmar scale. The sound is soft, watery and a little bit dreamy. People who hear it for the first time often say it sounds like raindrops, or a slow stream. It is a quiet instrument - in a noisy room you wouldn't hear it.
The saung has been played in Myanmar for at least 1,500 years. Old stone carvings from the Bagan temples show players holding harps that look almost exactly like the ones in use today. Very few instruments in the world have stayed so similar for so long.
Learning the saung takes a long time. Children who learn it usually start by sitting next to a teacher and copying the finger patterns. A master can play very fast, with both hands plucking and a small foot drum (a 'walking stick rhythm') keeping time. There are special saung schools in cities like Mandalay where the tradition is passed on.