KATMANDU -- Suman Ratna Dhakawa spills a tray of rings onto a bench and runs his fingers through the mass of metal as if it were a liquid. "My family all have been jewelry-makers, craftsmen or artists," says Dhakawa. "I have jewelry-making in my blood."
But that's not all that courses through the veins of the 39-year-old Nepalese man, whose Valhalla-brand jewelry is a common feature of the magazines driving Tokyo's fashion scene. Little do Japan's best-dressed know that they are buying the artworks of a designer born into a Katmandu Valley dynasty that traces its roots back to the clan of Buddha.
The Dhakawas are a subgroup of the Shakya clan, whose heritage reaches through history to the kingdom of Kapil Bastu, south of Nepal, in what is now India. Siddhartha Guatama, as Buddha was known before he attained nirvana, was also born into the Shakya clan 2,500 years ago.