Tibetan carpet art weaves life, sustains age-old tradition

McLeodganj (Himachal Pradesh), Dec 25 Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama’s vision to preserve and disseminate the unique art heritage of Tibet through self-sustaining means is one the everlasting embodiments of his commitments.

Started on May 7, 1969, with seed money of Rs 15,000 given by the Dalai Lama, Tibetan Handicraft Cooperative Society in McLeodganj, home to the Tibetan government-in-exile widely known as “Little Lhasa”, has been earning profit since then. Its annual turnover is around Rs 3 crore.

Its ethnic products include handmade premium sheep wool Tibetan carpets, traditional dresses, handbags, cushions and ritual items that are available in four sale counters in McLeodganj, a small and quaint hill station in the suburbs of the northern hill town of Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh.

The society, run by all 40 employees, a majority of them fled from their Himalayan homeland, creates jobs after training them for three months at no cost with an aim to keep the age-old skill and more importantly, the tradition alive through the hands of master weavers, who learnt the weaving at the tender age.

Currently, the hand-knotted rugs with original and contemporary designs of flowers, dragons and eight lucky signs, weaved on vertical looms by tying double knots over a rod, are much in demand across the globe, mainly in Japan, the US, Canada, Britain, Australia and Germany.

Every day a team of workers while dyeing wool derived from traditional vegetal dyes, laying out designs or weaving carpets chant Buddhist mantras, which they believe will bring happiness and good fortune to the customers. Most of these workers were born in Tibet and had to flee from Chinese tyranny to seek refuge in India, where their spiritual leader the Dalai Lama was granted asylum on April 3, 1959,

They weave their lives around karma and the carpets. Karma refers to one’s actions and the consequences of those actions, while carpets, mats and Thangka paintings symbolise their day-to-day struggle to survive, thrive and flourish.

One of its acclaimed handcrafted carpets is Tibetan tiger skin with a black stripe on a traditional light brown background which was published in Numero fashion magazine of Tokyo in October 2022 edition.

Tibet-born Tseyang, a 50-year-old woman weaver, told IANS that each 60-knot rug with a dimension of 231cm x 140 cm employs two people and consumes around a month to weave, with the tiger face being the most time-consuming, each knot of wool.

This year the Tibetan Handicraft Cooperative Society, an authorised exporter, which usually weaves flowers, dragons or auspicious eight symbols, was recognized as one of the best cooperatives in the state by the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC).

“Our export of carpets is over 85 per cent and we have huge orders of tiger-shaped rugs from Australia-based Tim Roodenrys,” Tibetan Handicraft Cooperative Society Manager Tenzin Rigsang told IANS, adding “We have already shipped carpets of Rs 30-40 lakh to him”.

“Roodenrys has unwavering loyalty for the weavers as he occasionally shares his earnings with them as a goodwill gesture to preserve a history of thousands of years,” Rigsang added. Each tiger carpet costs Rs 40,000.

The Tibetan Handicraft Cooperative Society is one of the 15 societies to make the Tibetan settlements viable and sustainable by generating employment opportunities within the Tibetan community.

Following the Chinese invasion, His Holiness the Dalai Lama fled to India on March 31, 1959, along with thousands of Tibetans and established the exile government, known as the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), in Mussoorie in April 1959, and later shifted to Dharamsala in May 1960.

With its long history and spiritual heritage, Tibetan people survived over six decades in exile as the most successful refugee community in the world.

Today the Dalai Lama, who will turn 90 on July 6, 2025, is not only the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people but is committed to preserving the Tibetan language and culture, the heritage Tibetans received from the masters of India’s Nalanda University.

He believes, “The preservation of Tibetan culture is very much needed because it is a tradition of peace, love and compassion. But it is being completely destroyed. Through Tibetan culture, we can make some contributions to create a happier and peaceful world through inner peace and a calm mind.”

His Holiness wrote in his biography that when he first stepped on Indian soil, there he experienced ‘freedom’. The escape route of His Holiness the Dalai Lama is illustrated in his memoir, “My Land and My People”.

(Vishal Gulati can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in)

Source: IANS