Abstract: It tells the story of the intangible cultural heritage inheritance of the Tibetan featured Pulu handcraft
Tibetan handicrafts have a long history of development. Historically, except for agriculture and nomadism, almost all production activities in Tibet were concentrated in the field of handicrafts. In modern times, the lives of Tibetan compatriots have undergone great changes, and a large number of traditional handicrafts are slowly disappearing. At the same time, the drawbacks Pulu handcraftproductions, which used to be dominated by family workshops, are also gradually emerging. To be more specific, firstly, most design and creativity of Tibetan Pulu handicrafts are only suitable for local consumption, which are unable to be spread to other parts of the country, leading to people’s poor understanding of them, let alone the promotion and publicity.
Secondly, relatively low production resulted from simple manual operation of the looms, coupled with the lack of continuous orders in the market, leading to these workshops being in a state of semi-suspension, and many handicraft workshops are difficult to maintain or even close.
Thirdly, Tibetan women’s handicrafts, as a necessary skill for local survival, are also an important source of income for a large number of families, and even for each household. How to help them find employment in their local areas and have a more stable source of income has become a topic that Sandriver has been pondering.
According to research, most of the handicraft inheritors are craftsmen who have not received school education, making it difficult for them to have the ability to sort out their handicraft skills. Therefore, we have established a Pulu R&D center in Jinshan, Shanghai to re-comb the history and culture of Pulu, and gather excellent designers around the world to jointly search for Pulu product design and development suitable for global contemporary aesthetics.
At the same time, we skillfully integrate Tibetan elements to develop innovative expressions of Pulu handicraft products with Tibetan clothing cultural attributes and are suitable for both national and global markets.
We spent three years restoring the traditional Tibetan handicrafts
The more national, the more global. As a global brand, Sandriver has always been committed to restoring traditional Chinese handicrafts. This time, we focused on Tibet and spent nearly three years studying and reviving Pulu. Guo Xiuling, the founder of Sandriver, and her team have also visited rural workshops and family workshops one by one in Lhasa, Shigatse and other places in Tibet, taught advanced handicraft skills to local craftswomen, and communicated with local rural cooperatives and carpet factories to learn from each other.
On one hand, we help the local craftswomen in Tibet to sort out their strengths and dig out the highlights of the Pulu culture, so that more people around the world can notice them. On the other hand, during the on-site visits and research, we quickly gathered loom experts and craftsmen to renovate and upgrade the equipment when facing problems such as some family looms being burned or thrown away, and the existing old looms not meeting today’s needs, so as to greatly improve textile efficiency, further promote the local employment of Tibetan female compatriots, and achieve income growth and prosperity at their doorstep.
Traditional skills are integrated with modern aesthetics, and the active inheritance makes the handicrafts bloom again.
Sandriver is not only committed to bringing traditional handicrafts to life, but also to making them more vibrant. In order to realize the real “active inheritance” of Tibetan featured Pulu handicrafts, Sandriver also starts from the material.
Cashmere has always enjoyed the reputation of “fiber diamond” and “soft gold” because of its slender fiber, soft texture, large tensile strength, good luster, white color and low amount of heterochromatic hair. Supported by Pulu handicrafts with traditional Tibetan features,Sandriver adopts cashmere, an extremely luxurious material, and integrates new expressions such as modern innovative designs and patterns to produce products including clothing, apparel and accessories, as well as home furnishing, etc.
Let ancient wisdom blend and coexist with modern civilization, and use the soft cashmere to carry the beauty of handicrafts. The production process of each Pulu product is a creation. When people touch each Pulu handicraft that shuttles through the various colorful wefts of the loom, and feel the exquisite craftsmanship and the hearts of the craftsmen, Pulu seems to have life and can breathe, releasing its unique natural vitality and charm.
Keywords: # Sandriver’s revival of Pulu handicrafts, # the active inheritance of Pulu, when Sandriver meets Pulu, # rural revitalization, # industrial assistance, # employment of women……
