( MENAFN - IANS) McLeodganj (Himachal Pradesh), Dec 25 (IANS) 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 vege.
