File:The Educator – Shalek Nima, A Tibetan Traditional Clay and Bronze Sculpture Master.jpg

English: Shalek Nima, 46, is a Tibetan traditional clay and bronze sculpture master in Dzongsar, Dege County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomus Prefecture, Sichuan in China, where the majority of its 5,343 residents are agro-pastoralists. Dzongsar which, is also known as Mesho, once was famous by its concentration on Tibetan arts. Clay and bronze sculpture was one of the most outstanding among the genres of arts and crafts in Dzongar..

Tibetan clay and bronze art has a long history. Nevertheless, the earliest written record of its history only dates back to the beginning of the nineteenth century. The first reincarnation of Dzongsar Khyentse was born in 1820. Based on the technique of lost-wax casting, he founded a unique bronze style well-known as Khyenle by Tibetans. With its unique bronze material and exquisite craftsmanship, it won much praise. The first Dzongsar Khyentse personally guided Naru Dochi to learn and make Khyenle. After five generations of transmission, Tashi Dorji became the fifth of the inheritors of Khyenle. However, the fifth generation faced the Cultural Revolution period. The majority of the arts and crafts practices were forbidden until the 1980s. Later Tashi Dorji passed his Khyenle skills to Nima, who is the sixth bearer of the Khyenle tradition.

Nima started learning smith and sculpturing since his early childhood. He is the most talented and well-known sculptor in Dzongsar. He is a father of two and a sculpture master of more than 50 students over the past 15 years. When it comes to arts and crafts he is a perfectionist; he emphasizes to his students that arts and crafts is a life long learning experience; you should never stop trying to surpass yourself. As the sixth generation of Khyenle carrier Nima said, “Art is all about quality and the symbols and the wisdom behind each artwork that you want to share with people, not the quantity.”

What he does is beyond arts and crafts. Many people always told locals that they would have to give up their tradition and culture for economic development. Nima refuses to believe this. Instead he believes that the tradition and culture is the best gift to say goodbye to poverty. He empowered many locals who never had chance to get an education and struggled to feed their families from a single low income. It also became cultural survival in globalization by empowering local Tibetan artists in an innovative way. Many of his students became masters themselves, teaching other younger generations. They are not only able to provide a better quality of lives for their families they also made the Tibetan culture and traditions to be carried forward in the world, outside of the Himalayan Mountains.