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Paper Road/Tibet's Traveling Exhibition Finishes Tour in Berkeley, California - FINAL WEEKS
Paper Road/Tibet's traveling exhibition has continued its popular tour, showing during the summer at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington and finishing this fall at the Berkeley Art Museum [BAM]. Each venue has shown different selections of the objects and photographs and the host institutions have added relevant objects from their collections to the exhibition. At BAM the name has changed slightly to Paper Road/Tibet: Printing and Papermaking in Tibet. The Berkeley Art Museum is located at 2626 Bancroft Way, Berkeley, CA, the hours are Wed. - Sun., 11 AM - 5 PM, Thurs., 11 AM - 9 PM. The exhibition will continue until 22 October, with a special day on Sunday, October 15th when project member Carol Brighton will give a Tibetan papermaking demonstration at 3:00 PM. A local Tibetan calligrapher will also give a traditional demonstration and there will be a walk-through of the exhibition. Please call the museum for further details, phone: 510-642-0808. There has been an enthusiastic response to the exhibition among the many Tibetan culture enthusiasts in the Bay area.
The traveling artifacts exhibition consists of over 40 objects book covers, printing blocks, printed book pages, calligraphy examples, fiber samples, mallets, book strap buckles, and prayer flags of cotton cloth and paper. Also included are enlarged photographs of contemporary Tibetans practicing the traditional art of papermaking and related crafts. Tibetan papermaking is the earliest method of papermaking, developed in China, which leaves the paper to dry on the mould, unlike other methods that developed later. This type of papermaking is practiced throughout the Himalaya and flourished for centuries to feed the tremendous demand for paper at the Buddhist printing houses in Tibet. The objects in this exhibition have been collected by members of the Paper Road/Tibet project. For the most part they have been purchased in the public markets of Lhasa, Shigatse, and Gyantse in Tibet and in Nepal. Together they serve to illustrate the project's premise that hand papermaking is important to Tibetan culture and can be adapted to serve both in the traditional forms as well as in new forms and formats appropriate for the needs of Tibetans today. The true value of this exhibition is to share with many visitors the rich history of Tibetan hand papermaking, calligraphy and the book arts ó and particularly to introduce exhibition visitors to the many wonderful practitioners of these arts, both young and old, in Tibet and the highlands of Nepal.
The Smithsonian Institution showed the exhibition Artifacts from the Paper Road/Tibet in the Arts and Industries building from June 22nd until July 16th. The exhibition was shown in conjunction with the Smithsonian Institution's Folklife Festival. The Tibetan section of the Folklife Festival was one of the most successful in recent years, drawing 1.2 million visitors, many of whom also crossed the mall to view the exhibition at the Arts & Industries building. A 20 foot high tree branch festooned with Tibetan Prayer flags stood outside the door of the museum building, similar to those that flutter in the wind above every house in Tibet. This tree was the outdoor signal that the Tibetan culturefest continued within. Inside the enormous rotunda, at the center of the late 19th century exhibition hall, the enormous recycled paper installation piece, Prayer for Chomolungma, by project- member Tom Leech hung in the arch over the Artifacts exhibition, flanked on each side balcony by project- member Carol Brighton's pair of groups of handmade paper Prayer Flags. Both works are the respective creators' artistic response to the bright red, gold, green, blue, and white prayer flags, or lungta, that flutter on rooftops, at high mountain passes and other sacred sites to distribute traditional Tibetan prayers to the spirits. Drawn to the area by the two contemporary paperworks, visitors found the Artifacts objects in a small but powerful group of cases and photographs. The daily demonstrations were more intimate and individualized than those in the popular Tibetan Folklife Festival Papermaking Tent. The most critical letter about the exhibition received by the Smithsonian complained that the exhibition wasn't going to be shown longer!
The exhibition was previously shown at the Business Center for the Arts, Manitou Springs, CO, November 13 - December 31, 1998; at the Main Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, August 13-29, 1999 and at the Robert C. Williams Museum of American Papermaking, Atlanta, GA from September 16 - November 21, 1999. The exhibition at the Berkeley Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley will be its final venue. The PRT project members are delighted that so many people have learned so much about Tibetan papermaking and its essential role in Tibetan culture.
Folklife Festival Update:
Tibetan Papermakers Tour the U.S. and Shine at the Smithsonian Institution's Folklife Festival on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
Two of the three principal papermakers and owners from Tibetan Handicraft Industry, Ltd. traveled to the United States for six weeks, beginning in late May, to participate in a series of US workshops and in the Smithsonian annual Folklife Festival's featured culture area, Tibet: Beyond the Land of Snows, from June 23 - 27th and June 30th - July 4th. Nimto Sherpa and Samten Lama are brothers whose grandfather emigrated from Kham. Their family first migrated to the Tibetan side of the Himalaya about fifty years ago and ultimately settled in the highlands of Nepal where Nimto, Samten and their cousin Nima were raised among the traditional sherpa papermaking villages. In 1995, the brothers and their cousin started their business that produces products made with Himalayan daphne or lokta paper in the Bodinath area of Kathmandu.
In addition to demonstrating traditional papermaking in the Papermaking & Calligraphy tent at the Folklife Festival on the mall, they did noontime demonstrations in the exhibition area at the Arts & Industries Museum, two demonstrations at the Sackler Gallery Museum Shop on Saturday, July 1st and participated in other Folklife Festival discussions and programs. It was an intense but exciting ten days for Nimto, Samten, project member Jane Farmer, PR/T assistant Rachel Reckord AND members of the Farmer family.
During the three weeks prior to the Folklife Festival, Samten and Nimto conducted a series of Tibetan hands-on papermaking workshops at Pyramid Atlantic, Riverdale, MD; Pike's Peak Community College, Colorado Springs, CO; Magnolia Paper and Print, Oakland, CA; and following the Folklife Festival they did a demonstration at Dieu Donne Press & Paper, New York City, NY in conjunction with a gallery opening for American paper artist Lawrence Barker. Nimto and Samten --and their cousin Nima who came to the US in 1998-- now have a series of fans across the United States.
The papermaking tent at the Folklife Festival was next to the thirty foot high Chorten that was the core of the Tibetan compound and was always busy. The papermaking tent was usually packed with many families and children, since the tent featured a low table where children could try beating cooked fibers and forming a sheet on a small Tibetan mold. At the larger vat, Nimto and Samten demonstrated traditional papermaking, their bamboo molds, and used the photo backdrop to identify the plants that are the sources for fibers in Nepal and Tibet, discuss natural dying, and answer the viewers' questions. In addition to introducing Tibetan papermaking to thousands of Americans, their demonstrations were a first for many of the other Tibetan craftspersons and monks who had traveled from India to participate in what was the largest ever gathering of Tibetans outside Tibet.
PAPER ROAD/TIBET and its Partner Organizations Become Members of Fair Trade Federation!
Paper Road/Tibet has applied and been accepted to the Fair Trade Federation on behalf of the project and its partner organizations, Tibetan Handicraft Industries Ltd. in Kathmandu and the Jatson Chumig Welfare Special School in Lhasa.
The Fair Trade Federation works to promote fair trade and to provide services to its members to increase the demand for fairly traded products. Fair trade is trade with concern for the social, economic and environmental well-being of marginalized producers in developing countries. Products purchased from participating groups are guaranteed to have been made under humane working conditions: no sweatshops, no convicts and no exploitative child labor. PR/T is proud to have officially joined this innovative movement and to display its logo.
Greatergood.com to add Paper Road/Tibet as a Beneficiary
Paper Road/Tibet has applied to be one of the recipient charities on the greatergood.com shopping website. By starting at greatergood.com and then going to shop at amazon.com, jcrew.com, patagonia.com and MANY more popular sites, you can designate Paper Road/Tibet to received up to 15% of the total sale. Check out the website, if PR/T is not yet listed, you can suggest it in a line asking for your favorite charities. If you all use greatergood.com for your shopping, you can be helping the Paper Road/Tibet project as well. All those small [not-so-small_] commissions will add up to be a great help for our project!
Lhasa Blues
Pequeno Press has just released a limited edition, hand bound miniature book by Tom Leech called "LHASA BLUES." It conveys impressions of present day Tibet from the viewpoint of an artist and astute observer of the human condition.
Tom Leech offers his unique perspective from his seven voyages to Tibet to teach hand papermaking and learn about this country beset by struggles to survive as a vital culture.
This book is sold only through Pequeno Press, and 10% of the proceeds will be donated to the PAPER ROAD/TIBET PROJECT