Artisan Dawa Dakpa and his sister, Dawa Drolma, arrived in Washington, D.C., at peak cherry blossom season in mid-March. Their journey spanned over forty hours from their village in Dêgê County, Ganzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, China. Fortunately, they arrived a day ahead of their National Museum of Asian Art × Folklife Artisan in Residence programs, allowing them time to rest and explore the early spring season in the District.  

Dawa Dakpa’s passion for craftsmanship ignited at the age of thirteen. After high school, he began learning bronze sculpture traditions from their father, Nima, and has continued working in bronze for over two decades. As the seventh generation of bronze artisans in his family, his expertise lies in Tibetan lima bronze craft, using traditional lost-wax casting and sand-casting techniques. He uses five types of lima bronze: red, yellow, white, black, and bell metal.

Dawa Drolma, in contrast, readily admits to not being adept in clay or bronze. Opting for a different path, she delved into business and marketing, encouraged by their parents. As a professional filmmaker and photographer, she has contributed to the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage’s Lag Zo online exhibition and garnered awards for her documentaries spotlighting Tibetan artisans in their village. She proudly oversees their family’s business, Khyenle, and she translated for her brother during his Smithsonian residency.

Nestled within their village of 6,000 residents, Khyenle stands as a beacon with thirty-three full-time artisans currently working alongside Dawa Dapka. Their village is home to 2,000 artisans who practice sixteen traditional Tibetan Buddhist art forms, including lost-wax casting, silversmithing, pottery, thangka painting, papermaking, and woodcarving. Khyenle aims to sustain these practices and tradition bearers through cultural preservation, economic development, and cultural confidence. In 2021, the organization expanded its offerings with a fourteen-room guesthouse, welcoming visitors for workshops and tours while remaining steadfast in upholding traditions and embracing new opportunities.

During his Smithsonian Artisan in Residence program, Dawa Dakpa offered two public art workshops. The Tibetan clay sculpting workshop explored a foundational step in bronze craft, laying the groundwork for wax casting and replicating designs in three dimensions. The sculpting stage allows for design adjustments and modifications with their tools. 

The second workshop in Tibetan wax sculpting and lost-wax casting emphasized patience. Dawa Dakpa reminded everyone to pour the hot wax slowly and turn the mold in circles to prevent bubbles and missed areas. He brought small molds of Buddhas and other shapes so participants could learn the basic steps of the lost-wax casting process within the two-hour class. Attendees sat in groups of three or four and worked as a collective, collaborating on the steps and supporting each other. Traditionally, the whole process takes three incarnations (clay, wax, lima) and over a year to complete a statue.

“The artisan workshop allows the public to interact with the artisans to the highest degree of expertise and to understand the nature of their crafts,” said Edwina Chen, who attended both workshops. “It gives permission and opportunity to expand. I also had a wonderful time meeting and creating with strangers.” 

Beyond his mastery of bronze work, Dawa Dakpa designs the packaging for Khyenle jewelry and products. Every piece originates from a folk story, and each piece is accompanied by product cards featuring illustrated narratives written in Chinese and English. During the Artisan in Residence program, they had an opportunity to sell their work at the National Museum of Asian Art gift shop during two pop-up trunk sales and connect with many museum visitors.

Dawa Dakpa’s residency included a tour of the White House and immersive studio visits with talented bronze, metal, and mosaic artists in the area. Their first visit was with sculpture and mural artist Jay F. Coleman, who shares a building with artists Raymond Kaskey and Jordan Hamlett Sanders just outside of D.C.

“I felt immediately connected to Dakpa as a human and as a sculptor through the craft we share, even with the language barrier,” Coleman said. “Drolma is warm, knowledgeable, and very inviting.”

The next stop was mosaic artist Valerie Theberge’s studio to see her sculptures and learn about her process of cutting tiles. Theberge has a background in Chinese language and painting and a master’s degree from the University of Hong Kong. Dawa Dakpa enjoyed speaking Chinese with her and learning about the villages she visited. Theberge also introduced them to several other artists in the studio space.

The last visit was with metal artist Mercedes, who has a studio in the old Fillmore School in Georgetown run by S&R Evermay. Mercedes and Dakpa discussed materials and processes, finding numerous similarities in their respective works. They both worked with their fathers while learning their craft, and they use bells and chanting in their work. Mercedes’s work often combines dance, singing, and performance, while Dawa Dakpa’s work always includes a blessing in the form of a chant.

After his visit, Dawa Dakpa remarked that he might experiment with other shapes and non-traditional materials. He was inspired by the contemporary art he saw in Washington, D.C., as his art has mainly focused on Tibetan traditions. He also commented on how each artist had helped foster supportive communities.

Dawa Dakpa and Dawa Drolma continued from D.C. to New York City, where curator Elena Pakhoutova provided a tour of the Rubin Museum of Art. This community is dedicated to sharing and celebrating Himalayan art, and the tour included the history of several statues from Nepal, Tibet, and Mongolia. The artists were excited to find Khyenle jewelry for sale in the museum’s gift shop! Though the Rubin is closing its physical location in 2024, the staff hopes to continue to digitally share its collection.

The residence wrapped up with visits from Dawa Drolma’s friends from school in Maine. It seems that, wherever they go, Dawa Dakpa and Dawa Drolma meet friends who become family in part because of their generous spirit and openness. The last slide in their public presentation included the Tibetan saying ཆུ་ཐིགས་བསགས་པའི་རྒྱ་མཚོ།, which translates to, “How do you prevent a single drop of water from drying up?” The answer: Let it flow into the ocean.

In sharing their lives as artisans, Dawa Dakpa and Dawa Drolma embody this ethos, allowing their experiences to enrich and inspire everyone around them.

Beth Ferraro is the artisan coordinator working with the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and the National Museum of Asian Art Museum on this pilot program. She is the curator at Gallery Y at the YMCA Anthony Bowen in D.C., teaches chair yoga to seniors, and serves as an art and community consultant under the name The Art Island.