KATHMANDU, DECEMBER 12
Inside Cafe Cheeno in Patan, Mike Krajniak sat relaxed and open. After 40 years in Nepal, the American industrial designer has spent more time here than in his home country. His connection to the country runs deeper than words can capture.
It all started in 1979. Krajniak was working on a housing project in Bangladesh when a friend insisted he take a meditation course at Kapan Monastery in Kathmandu. "I didn't know anything about Buddhism," he said. "But something told me yes, try it, try it!"
That one month changed everything. "I was so impressed, not just with the dharma, but also with Kathmandu. The temples, the people, the faces, just everything about it!" Two years later, a friend working in Nepal told him about an opening with the Women Skill Development Project. He came to check it out and never really left.
In 1982, Krajniak and Meera Bhattarai co-founded the Association of Craft Producers (ACP), which owns Dhukuti, the craft shop in Kupandol that's still thriving more than four decades later. "My background is industrial designing, so I am an artist, and I like crafts very much. I love Nepali crafts," he explained. "And I could see a lot of opportunities to help develop it."
The idea was straightforward: offer income opportunities to women with little to no skills. They went to Kirtipur and villages all around, teaching basic sewing skills, designing crafts that were simple enough for beginners to produce. In the 1980s and 90s, crafts were fashionable, and UNICEF had funds for income development projects. Within 10 years, they had around 1,200 producers.
Some of the most memorable products came from trial and error. One of them was the Nepali doll. "It took seven women to make it," Krajniak recalled. "One lady was very good with the clothes, one was very good with stuffing, one lady could do the face, and so on. So we shifted that doll seven times before we could sell it."
Then there was the box. Simple, wrapped in Nepali paper, no hinge, no complicated lid, just interesting colours and paintings. An exporter once told him why their boxes sold worldwide. "He said, on our box shelves, we have boxes from Afghanistan, and Thailand, etc, and they're all very elegant, very exquisite, very inviting. And then there's the Nepali box.
It's so different, people like it. And when you look at it, it's obviously made by somebody who has rudimentary skills, but it was very honest."
That honesty is what Krajniak has spent decades trying to preserve. Over the years, many women producers left ACP with new skills to open their own businesses. A second generation is now taking over from their parents, carrying on craft traditions with modern ideas.
But challenges remain. The market for high-quality handicrafts does well, but lower-tier crafts, particularly fiber products, struggle. "If people make a basket in a village and try to sell it in a village bazaar, they don't get what it's worth," he explained. "And so, for that reason, their children aren't interested in following the skills of their parents."
COVID made things tougher, but Krajniak sees hope in Kathmandu's growing middle class. His advice to producers now?
"Start looking for a local market, not the export market." He's particularly focused on hotels, coffee houses, and restaurants. "How many have you been to, where everything is very nice, very new, but there's nothing Nepali?" he asked.
When asked why he's stayed all these years, Krajniak paused. "It's a mystery," he admitted. "My Nepali friends say, well, why do you want to stay here? Everybody wants to go to America. And when I go home to the States, everybody asks why do I want to live in Nepal?"
The answer has to do with understanding Nepali people in a way that feels instinctive. "My father came from 10 children, and I grew up in a Newar type family, because all of my uncles and aunts lived on the same street. I had 15-20 cousins when I grew up. So, I knew about the chaos and havoc and the squabbles and the festivals and so on. I do identify quite a bit with the style of living in Nepal."
He shared a story about Kesav, his first cook. When Krajniak asked about his religion, Kesav hesitated before saying he was Buddhist. When pressed about his knowledge of Buddhism, Kesav didn't know very much. "So, I said, Kesav, you say you're Buddhist, but you don't know very much. And he said, well, I know Buddha, and Buddha knows me." Krajniak was struck by the simplicity of it. "It was that sort of thing, the logic, the way Nepalese approach problems and issues. And they're very kind people."
Beyond that, he's almost embarrassed to explain why he likes it. "Because it's very personal," he said. "I think it's beautiful."
Currently living in Chiang Mai, Krajniak makes regular trips back to Kathmandu to work with producers and help them in any way he can. He's also been working with Kathmandu University students studying craft and design, giving workshops on traditional Nepali designs.
As an avid painter focusing on Nepali portraits, landscapes, and architecture, Krajniak has held solo exhibitions and collaborated with art students to demonstrate how traditional designs can incorporate Western styles. His aim is to continue mentoring students and craft NGOs to develop high-quality contemporary craft products for local consumption, not just export trade.
"Nepal is coming of age," he said. "Forty years ago, Nepal's skills, the level of education, was limited. Now we have highly educated Gen Z. And it's their time to take over, move into these areas of professionalism that were previously monitored or taken over by foreigners."
But in the realm of art and handicrafts, he believes there's still a need for international connections, for bridges between Nepali aesthetics and global markets.
When asked if Nepal feels like home, he didn't hesitate. "Many people do feel that way. Nepal is one of those countries where foreigners come back here more than once. And it's not just for trekking. They develop friendships."
"I can leave behind my legacy of craft to the next generation," he said. "As Nepal to me has always been home." For Mike Krajniak, born American but breathing Nepali, home is about where you choose to pour your heart and your decades. And that place has always been Nepal.
