From Loom to Riches: Tale of the Tibeto-Nepali Carpet
Tibetans have turned their ancient folk art into Nepal's top-ranking export.
One day in early 1960, when the Tibetan exiles were newcomers in Kathmandu, Jesuit priest Marshall D. Moran (now a sprightly 84) noticed a "shabby refugee" in the Jawalakhel locality clutching a bundle of wooded rods. Upon inquiring, Moran learnt that the wooden rods when assembled became a portable loom to weave rugs.
'The refugees were illiterate, in rags. And needed help. I knew that rugs would come to their help," says Moran. who was founding-member of the then nascent Nepal International Tibetan Refugee Relief Committee, and well they did. "Within three years, the refugees had forsaken the dark and dirty tents of the Jawalakhel refugee settlement, had wrist watches and were living in rented rooms."