Spinning yak wool in Tibet

It’s in Ritoma, a small Tibetan village perched between heaven and earth located 3,600 meters above sea level, Dechen Yeschi, a 33-year-old Tibetan-American, settled her bags there a few years ago. After living in the United States, she decided to return to Tibet to develop an economic plan that maintains the Tibetan cultural heritage.

Going over there, you can understand how, by the power of selflessness, they maintain secular traditions in the country suppressed by the grip of the Chinese takeover. After an eight hour drive from the airport, which will take you across the gleaming Chinese cities, you’ll discover work of Dechen in this little village: a yak wool spinning workshop. This workshop employs over a hundred people who spin and weave the precious khullu, a yak comforter harvested from the animal at a specific time of the year. The result is a noble material, unequal softness, very popular amongst Chinese emperors for hundreds of years. Weaving this type of wool recently became obsolete. Today, it’s the French luxury brands that are flocking to these goods. You can shop around the showroom and take back shawls or scarves well below the price of ones at Rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré!

This human experience can be combined with an exclusive trip to China and or Tibet. Contact our team artisan travel team for personalized travel logs in these countries. Contact@mymoonspots.com

– To know more: Read the reportage of Capucine Graby in Tibet published in the magazine Long Course by clicking HERE.