Nomads making handicrafts as part of the Amdo Craft initiative


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Amdo Craft is dedicated to training and helping Tibetan nomads use the only resource they have, yak and sheep wool and yak milk. The profit of the sales of these unique handmade handicrafts goes back to Tibetan communities. In return they are able to provide shoes, clothes, and school books for their children as well as food for the long cold winters.

Amdo Craft is a small company in the Qinghai province of China.  The company exists to train Tibetan nomads and farmers, both women and men, in producing marketable handmade items and then helps them sell those items, locally and internationally.  The profit of the sales of the handicrafts goes back to Tibetan communities.

These Tibetans live at high altitudes in remote locations which present many challenges, such as extreme cold and harsh conditions.  They rely almost entirely on their animals for their livelihood.  Their only resource comes from yak and sheep wool as well as yak milk and tallow.  Some families pick caterpillar fungus, a popular item in Asia, to supplement income.

Amdo Craft trains these Tibetans to card, spin, weave, felt, and knit their wool into beautifully homemade handicrafts.  In 2011 the nomads were trained in how to make yak milk soap.  High quality is ensured by intense training and constant quality control.

Ways Amdo Craft has helped Tibetan Communities:

  1. Provides books for libraries in small Tibetan schools
  2. Provides health and hygiene training as well as medical clinics and care
  3. Helps to preserve traditional Tibetan weaving and braiding skill
  4. Promotes the production of indigenous Tibetan Handicraft items
  5. Provides marketable training skills for Tibetans who have no source of income
This place was recommended by: Chris Jones