YOU'VE SEEN THEM before: eye-catching Buddhist thangka paintings jostling alongside the turquoise-inlaid jewellery and brightly coloured Tibetan carpets in flea markets and shops all over the world. On the surface, the Tibetan handcraft tradition appears to be alive and kicking. Only it isn't. Today, most of the crafts are made outside Tibet, with relatively little coming from the source.
With the steady exodus of Tibetans since the 1950s and the disruptive impact of the Cultural Revolution, true Tibetan art is increasingly difficult to come by. 'Today, about 80 per cent of Tibetan-style art items aren't made in Tibet, but in Nepal, India and inland China,' says textile crafts specialist Chris Buckley, the owner of Torana galleries in Beijing and Shanghai. Some traditional art forms are on the verge of extinction, with the passing of older Tibetan artisans.
To slow (if not reverse) this trend, the Tibet Poverty Alleviation Fund set up the Tibet Artisan Initiative (TAI) in Lhasa in 2002 to teach small communities of weavers and craftsmen to rediscover their roots. The scheme was also aimed at improving their living standards.
Three years on, a photo exhibition, From Our Living Hands: Tibetan Artisans and Their Creations, looks at how these artists have fared so far.
Taken by photographer Miranda Mimi Kuo, the colourful images are now on show at the Dropenling Handicraft Development Centre in Lhasa, before moving to Beijing and Shanghai in September.
The project, organised and sponsored by Buckley, features portraits of 30 artisans who work at home or in workshops. Each includes a story about the artisan and their crafts.