A Letter from Zhao Qingtao, Founder of Dayatang 大雅堂

In a small Yunnan town, silver is born. The Bai people have struck it with hammers for a thousand years.
In Changnan, kiln fires have burned for centuries, passed from one pair of hands to the next.
In the Bulang mountains, tea has been guarded for 1,700 generations. Where tea smoke rises, the drumbeats of the Pu people sound like thunder from the beginning of time.

The sea meets the rising sun; green peaks tower in Wuyi…
Deep in the mountains, down hidden lanes—countless crafts, scattered like stars.
But those who guard them are few. And most live in quiet poverty.
The path of a craft keeper is lighter than tea smoke, yet more bitter than a tea stem.

So we began gathering them—skilled hands from everywhere. We built the ICH Inheritors Alliance.
When we choose a piece, we trace it to its source. When we select a vessel, we follow it to its root.
We take only what was made with everything the maker had. We show only what was forged with sweat and tears.
When we find a true artisan, we visit three times to ask. When we receive a fine piece, we bow nine times to keep it.

What Dayatang offers is not the price of pearls and jade—
it is the conversation between rough palms and fine clay and fire.
It is the thread of years. The soul of a craft.

I am only here for a moment. But these crafts—they were here long before me, and they will remain long after.
Have you seen it? A single bud from a mountain village—winning bids on international stages, served at banquets for queens.

This heart of mine does not seek glory for one hall or one name.
This heart of mine does not try to prove the worth of things.
This heart of mine is not for showing off skill.

It is only so that the mist of Mengshan, the moon over Bulang, the glow of Wuyi cliffs—
may all gather at an artisan's fingertips.
Like a lamp, like a bean-sized flame, lighting today's lanes,
and the tea tables of those yet to come.

I know how hard it is to guard a craft.
I wish only to be a lamp-lighter, to hold this flame high, and let it shine through the long night.