RugDogBlog

The Tibet Artisan Initiative (TAI) will be familiar to some Beijing residents who have visited Lhasa and bought handicrafts from their fine handicrafts center there, called Dropenling. The TAI is a not-for-profit organisation that assists traditional artisans in designing and marketing items of high quality that can sell internationally. This in turn generates much needed income that helps sustain rural communities in Tibet.

This year the TAI is bringing its handicrafts to Beijing and will be attending fairs and bazaars in the run up to Christmas, mostly during the last week in November and the first week in December. My company (Torana) is helping out with logistical support and publicity. 100% of the proceeds from sales will go to the TAI.

The handicrafts include the famous Wangden carpets that are made only in a small valley near Shigatse (and recently featured in exhibitions in London and Rome), Tibetan flatweave fabrics, dolls (see the snow lion below), painted wooden items and more.

There are seven of the TAI's Tibetan employees in town to support the fairs. Come along and meet them! I will be attending some of the fairs and helping out on the stands too. I have posted a list of the fairs on my site at this link.

For those Beijing residents in search of somewhat larger carpets to keep their feet warm this winter Torana is also holding a sale at our Shunyi area store with some large reductions on fine handmade area rugs ... more details on this and a location map for our Shunyi store on our website.

Following my last posting on the Snow Lion doll designed by Susie Vickery and Tibetan artisans at the Dropenling handicrafts center in Lhasa, Susie wrote from Lhasa enclosing some photos of prototypes for next season that she is working on.

Seen here are two new glove puppets with Tiger and Snow Lion designs. These will be on sale in Dropenling next year. The gentleman in the center is Arthur Holcombe, founder of the Tibet Poverty Alleviation fund and the Dropenling center. He is not for sale.

Exceedingly friendly, in a tongue-hanging out kind of way, this is the new snow lion from the Dropenling Handicrafts Center in Lhasa, run by the Tibet Artisan Initiative.

He was created by Susie Vickery, a former RSC costume designer, who visited Lhasa last year to work with traditional Tibetan tailors and applique workers to create the snow lion and other Tibetan dolls. The artisans are using traditional applique skills that are used for making religious banners and door hangings, but applied in a new way.

The snow lion is a traditional animal in Tibet, the seat of Vaishravana (Namtose), the god of wealth and the King of the Northern Direction, often seen in paintings in both secular and religious contexts, as well as in sculptures around Lhasa.

The snow lion has been such a hit that Susie is back in Lhasa right now, designing new animals for next year. The Dropenling team will be visiting Beijing later this month and attending some of the pre-Christmas bazaars and bringing some snow lions with them. I will be posting a list of the bazaars we will be attending later this month.

The Tibet Artisan Initiative's website is at www.tibetcraft.com

For those that can't wait, I have a few of these guys in my Torana store in the Kempinski hotel in Beijing.

On Thursday this week I will be giving a talk for the Beijing International Society. The BIS is open to foreign passport holders in Beijing: talks are free for members, but non-members may also attend (one-time fee: 50RMB, please bring your passport since the talk is inside an embassy compound) There are more details about the BIS on their website:
www.beijinginternationalsociety.com

Here is the talk outline from the BIS flyer:

Tibetan Textiles: Reviving Traditional Skills
Illustrated Lecture
By Mr. Chris Buckley
7.30pm, Thursday, 6 November
Embassy of Kuwait
科威特国大使馆
光华路23号

Keweite Dashiguan
23 Guanghua Lu


Throughout its history, Tibet has been largely pastoral, with its herds of yaks, sheep and other animals providing the material for producing a variety of textile products, including blankets, tents, clothing and, of course, carpets.  However, in recent years many of the traditional skills have been lost.

Chris Buckley, working together with the Tibet Artisan Initiative in Lhasa, has spent the past three years working to recover some of the traditional Tibetan natural dyeing methods.  He will talk about Tibet's rich history of textile manufacture (whether in small-scale cottage industries or larger, commercial enterprises), as well as textile uses.  He will also discuss the sometimes unexpected environmental and social issues relating to dye choice and textile manufacture in Lhasa and area.  

Chris Buckley has lived in China since 1995.  He made his first trip to Tibet in 1996, from which time his interest in Tibetan art and culture developed.  He received a PhD in chemistry from Oxford, training which has proved beneficial to his latest researches into traditional dyeing technologies.

Membership desk opens 7.00pm for 7.30 pm lecture

This just arrived in our Beijing Kempinski hotel Torana store. The rug measures 6ft by 8.5ft.

It's called Great Wall. No prizes for guessing why.

I'm hoping that some Beijing residents might like it as a souvenir of their stay here. This is the first one ... whether we weave any more of these depends on the reaction to this one.

Brian Wallace and his team at the Red Gate gallery, one of Beijing's longest established art galleries, have put together a second exhibition of contemporary Tibetan art.

The show, which is at their newer 798 district gallery (not the original gallery at the watchtower) includes works by Gade, Keltse, Gongkar Gyatso, Tsering Nyandak, Tsewang Tashi and Nortse, who painted the striking self portrait shown here. Their works fuse elements of contemporary Chinese style with its emphasis on bold and colorful works, with Tibetan elements and themes ... in Nortse's case the mandala and prayer slips (lungta) that flutter around the artist's head.

The exhibition runs from Saturday October 25th until the 16th November, 11am-6pm (closed Mondays). The 798 gallery is at 797 East street, 798 art zone, No. 2 Juixianqiao Lu, Chaoyang district, Beijing.
Tel 6438 1005
website: www.redgategallery.com

illustration: Self portrait, Red Flower by Nortse, 2008, mixed media

We've just received a new shipment of Tibetan cashmere shawls at our Torana Beijing store, so I'm going to take the opportunity here to describe what Cashmere is ... and also what it isn't.

Cashmere is a very fine, soft material that is neither wool nor hair. It comes from the Pashmina goats (hence it's alternative name) that live at high altitudes. In the case of our cashmere, that means Tibet.

The altitude is important, because the purpose of the downy cashmere is to keep the goat warm in winter. Many animals living at high elevations grow cashmere coats under their outer fur or hair, even yaks (the yak version of cashmere is called kulu), but the type from the pashmina goat is the whitest and softest available. Pashmina goats live very happily at lower altitudes, but they don't produce good cashmere if the weather is too warm.

The material got its name "Cashmere" because it became popular in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries and the country doing most of the weaving of Tibetan cashmere in those days was Kashmir. In those days most shawls were woven with traditional paisley designs from the Kashmiri weaver's traditional repertoire. Today shawl designs are a great deal more varied and they are made in several locations around the Himalayas.

These days a great many shawls and scarves are on sale in China and elsewhere that are called "Cashmere" or "Pashmina". The problem for the buyer is that these include a range of materials from Tibetan cashmere (best, because of the altitude) through Mongolian cashmere (lesser quality) to New Zealand wool (artificially fluffed to make it seem like cashmere). Until you are familiar with the real thing these materials can be difficult to tell apart. Most of the inexpensive "Cashmere" that I have seen on sale in Beijing is not cashmere at all. This includes the countless shawls in shades of chemical pink and blue that are sold in the markets here.

Cashmere can also be bought in pure form, or in blends with silk. The pure form is more expensive, not only because of the cashmere content, but because it is slower and more difficult to weave than thread blended with silk. In Torana we have both pure cashmere shawls and 70%cashmere/30% silk shawls, the pure shawls being about twice the price of the blends. Both are attractive and woven and designed to the same standard so this is a matter of choice and budget.

Aside from considerations of fiber content, weave quality is also critical with cashmere. A very light touch is needed to bring out the best in the fiber, and good cashmere should have a "floaty" feel as well as being soft.

Finally, as with any luxury item, design is just as important as materials. Good quality cashmere is usually synonymous with good color and design, since it is worthwhile to employ a good designer to make the most of the best material.

There are some pictures of (some of) our new designs on this page of our website.

Tanva: When did you join our weaving workshop?
NNK: Just arrived today
Tanva: What motivated you to join us in the first place?
NNK: Mostly it was the long grass that covers most of the site. And the numerous small mammals and birds. Especially the defenseless ones.
Tanva: How did the interview go?
NNK: Well, the guys, I mean the other cats, just sat there and kinda stared at me. And they did the tail swishing thing too. I was pretty nervous for a few minutes, I can tell you. Then they turned around and walked away. That's when I knew I was "in".
Tanva: How are the facilities on-site?
NNK: Well, the kitchen scraps are ok. But too many vegetables. I never understood the point of vegetables. Or rice for that matter.
Tanva: And how do you like the place generally?
NNK: Ok. But the pace is a bit too frantic for my liking. All that weaving and dyeing and stuff. Sometimes I get tired just from watching it and have to take a nap. My advice would be "slow it down a bit guys". Wait 'till it gets dark. That's the time to get stuff done.
Tanva: Any hobbies or interests?
NNK: Not really. There's the napping and tormenting of small, half-dead animals. But that's more of a vocation really.
Tanva: How long do you plan on being here?
NNK: Things are going pretty well. I might stay all day if it keeps up.
Well, can't stand around here all day nattering to you. Hey, I cornered a mouse this morning that was nearly as big as my head! No kidding! I swear to god it was this big...

Greetings from Lhasa (I arrived yesterday on a trip to visit our workshop here).

The atmosphere is very different here compared with my last trip in July. Tourists are returning, both local and from overseas. The restaurants are back open (huzzah! more than one place to eat!) and the traders are looking marginally happier. The weather is still decent, though cooling off a bit, and Lhasa residents are out proving the truth of the saying "whereever you find a patch of green, you fill find a Tibetan sitting on it". This includes traffic islands.

Pictured here is one of the new designs that has just come off the loom, that I am pleased with, photographed after washing but before the final trim. Well done Norbu and team. The design is based on one of the imperial seals used by the Kangxi Emperor (1661-1722), one of the two longest serving and most successful emperors of the Qing dynasty. Hope he won't mind me stealing his seal design.

The rug measures about 6ftx6ft (Imperial measures - what else?).