Julianne's Diary Day Seven - Shigatse to Gyangtse

by Julianne Page

Living out of a suitcase is becoming second nature now and it was time again this morning to zip up the luggage and roll it out of the hotel.

The ladies of the 'Tibet Gang-Gyen Carpet factory' in Shigatse. The factory makes rugs displaying  traditional Tibetan designs.[Photo: CRIENGLISH.com]

Today we had a busy whistle-stop tour of many different places in Shigatse and further afield in the county of Jiang zi.

Perhaps the highlight came first with our trip to the 'Tibet Gang-Gyen Carpet factory' in Shigatse. The factory makes rugs displaying traditional Tibetan designs and exports to the US, Europe as well as to big cities throughout China.

This factory was established in 1988 and was the initiative of Tibet's 10th Panchen Lama. I guess he wanted to do something to benefit poor, rural woman because this factory has created job opportunities for over 150 of them.

The ladies and I had a great time sharing some laughs trying to communicate about the skills required for weaving, spinning and rug making. They particularly enjoyed looking over the photos we were taking. One worker explained that it takes about twenty hours to create an average sized rug and for this each of them receives around 400 yuan.

In my view this factory is a real good news story. Not only do they preserve traditional Tibetan handicrafts, they also create job opportunities for Tibetan woman and contribute a percentage of their profits to monks at the nearby 'Ta Shi Lhun Po' monastery.