November 2008 Archives

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