Choeying is a typical female character from the Kongpo County in the southeastern part of Central Tibet, bordering Kham. This area is famous for its many rivers, magnificent mountain gorges and – due to its comparatively mild and humid climate- spectacular lush and diverse forests. It is also known as one of the important cradles of ancient Tibetan civilization as Tibetans settled here since more than five thousand years. Besides many unique Kongpo customs and ways of life, their distinctive traditional garments are outstanding and very impressive, and we are most happy to finally include them in our traditional Tibetan section.
“All our dolls are filled with pure sheepwool which we receive from sheep herded in Himachal Pradesh. When we started Dolls4Tibet, 14 years ago, we collected the wool directly from the shepherds who passed through our village twice a year: after the monsun coming down from the mountains and in spring before going up.and what hard work it was: taking all these sacks of freshly shorn wool down to the river, wash it in freezing cold mountain water, dry in on the rock, before taking it all back home.And then we carded it all by hand with traditional carding combs....a long process before we even could start making our dolls. But it was also fun as the waiting for the wool to dry was filled with yummy picnics and various card games”