Arts & Crafts
Thirteen traditional crafts, formally codified in the seventeenth century and still taught as a full curriculum. Not heritage display, a working economy.
The Zorig Chusum are thirteen arts: painting, sculpture, wood carving, casting, blacksmithing, embroidery, weaving, papermaking, bamboo work and more. Students at the School of Traditional Arts in Thimphu spend four to six years on one of them.
Why it survives
Because the output is used. National dress is required in offices, schools and dzongs, so weavers have customers. Temples need repainting, so thangka painters have work. The crafts were never rescued, because they never stopped.
Textiles
Kishuthara from the east is the most intricate: a single kira can take the better part of a year on a backstrap loom, woven from memory with no written pattern. Yathra from Bumthang is thicker wool in bold geometric bands, made for cold.
Buying honestly
Machine-made imports are widely sold and much cheaper. Handwoven pieces have small irregularities, and the reverse side tells you most. Ask where it was woven and by whom. In a good shop the answer is specific.
Where it appears
- Thimphu, School of Traditional Arts
- Royal Textile Academy
- Weaving households in the east
Best season
- Year round
- School closed on public holidays
- Weekdays are best
Good to know
- Watch before you buy
- Check the reverse of woven pieces
- Workshops beat shops
Meet the makers.
Tell us crafts interest you and we will build in workshops rather than showrooms.
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