Where devotion transcends work and art

For 30 years Kelsang Dawa has wielded drawing pens that help him to express his faith. Wang Kaihao and Li Yingqing report in Shangri-La, Yunnan.

In an alley near the entrance of Dukezong, a centuries-old Tibetan neighborhood in the center of Shangri-La, hides a thangka painting center.

When visitors come to admire its exquisite silk or cotton pieces with a Tibetan Buddhist theme, the owner, Kelsang Dawa, 36, asks them to put on shoe covers before entering the gallery. He even stops a visitor talking on the telephone in front of thangka.