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Khampa Arts Products |
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Order Now! |
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TRADITIONAL NOMAD CRAFTS
TRADITIONALLY, KHAMPA NOMADS rarely
visited market towns, and items available there were limited. The nomads were
mostly self-sufficient, trading their yak-butter only for Tibetan barley
(tsampa) from the farmers, for tea, and for salt. Other items for
household use were made by hand – everything from leather tsampa storage bags;
to bladders used to store and preserve butter; to flints for fire-starting; to
saddle bags; to blankets; to clothing; to the tents in which they lived.
Some items, like ladels, pots, jewelry, and some wool felt items could be made
only by a few grassland craftsmen, and they sold their wares to all comers.
Current times have given the nomads
a much larger choice of buyable items in market towns. Cheap Chinese household items have flooded in, and given nomads choices that 
make many oftheir traditional handmade items obsolete – they are labor-intensive and hard
to justify, given these alternatives.
However, most traditional items are
still made, in reduced quantities. Khampa nomads are generally both
aesthetically- and traditionally-minded people, and they prefer a colorful
hand-woven yak-hair drying cloth to a cheap plastic tarp, just as a Westerner
would . They use the tarps because they are cheap and easily available,
but weave cloths whenever they have time.
The items on these pages are all traditionally made for personal use. We can request nomads from within our network to make these items for you, and ship them to you. Please contact us for pricing and seasonal availability!
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