Feel the charm of intangible cultural heritage handmade fabrics and special agricultural products from Xizang!, Entering the Special Features of this Exhibition | Highland Barley | Fabric

"My hometown is in Shigatse, where there is a beautiful river... The blue sky is filled with white clouds, and the beautiful river is flowing with clear waves." Han Hong's "Hometown" sings out the richness of Shigatse with concise lyrics, which also corresponds to the Tibetan meaning of "the richest manor" in Shigatse. The unique geographical environment and religious culture make this land not only rich in resources, but also a rich collection of Tibetan intangible cultural heritage that gathers the wisdom and connotation of local people.

Mountains and seas are connected, Shenqing helps purchase. From July 20th to 23rd, the 6th Shanghai Special Products Exhibition and Sales Fair will be held at the Shanghai Exhibition Center. Come and taste the agricultural specialty products from the snowy plateau on site, and experience the charm of non heritage cultural and creative products! This summer, you can experience the unique Tibetan culture without leaving Shanghai.

Weaving Pulu's "Dream of Wealth" with "New Industries"

Pulu, transliterated from Tibetan, is a traditional handmade woolen product of the Tibetan people. It is made through multiple processes such as washing, combing, twisting, washing, weaving on a loom, and dyeing. The finished product is fine, smooth, and soft, and can be made into Tibetan robes, hats, boots, etc. It can also be given as a gift. Xizang produces more wool than cotton, so Pulu is as important and popular to Tibetan compatriots as cotton cloth is to inland people.

Xiema Pulu weaving technique in Gyantse County, Xigaze City, Xizang, has a history of more than 1000 years. In 2009, "Xiema Pulu weaving technique in Gyantse" was listed as an autonomous region level intangible cultural heritage protection project. Almost all local women mastered this skill. However, in old Xizang, the Xiema Pulu woven by women was only for aristocrats to enjoy, and they could not wear clothes woven by Pulu themselves; Nowadays, Pulu is not only widely used in the daily lives of local people, but after further exploring its cultural and commercial value, Pulu weaving will also become an opportunity to solve the employment difficulties of Tibetan women and help them lift themselves out of poverty and become prosperous.

Manual Weaving Process Diagram

How to promote the popularity of Xizang's intangible cultural heritage projects and transform the characteristic resource advantages into considerable economic benefits is a question that Shanghai's Tibetan aid cadres have always been thinking about. Like many traditional handicrafts that have not kept up with the times, today's Jiangzi Pulu weaving technique is facing problems such as a single variety, low production, a sharp decline in practitioners, and a clear trend of aging, gradually falling into crisis. To break through this dilemma, with the strong support of the Jiangzi County Party Committee and Government, Shanghai Tibetan aid cadres actively contacted Shanghai Shajuan Fashion Technology Co., Ltd., hoping to use Shanghai's advanced marketing methods, innovative design ideas, and scientific production techniques, combined with the local characteristics of Jiangzi, to create a batch of new Pulu products that meet the public's aesthetic and are suitable for preservation. This will promote them nationwide and overseas, break regional limitations, and enhance the popularity of Jiangzi characteristic products, thereby increasing income and efficiency for the Jiangzi Pulu Cooperative.

Handicrafters from Jiangzi County are learning and training at Shanghai Pulu R&D Center

Nowadays, Tibet can "turn around magnificently" from traditional Tibetan daily necessities to popular high-end textiles, with the "advice" of Shanghai enterprises behind it ". Sha Juan is a high-end artistic cashmere brand born in Shanghai. Its founder Guo Xiuling is the winner of the title of "Shanghai Craftsman" in 2019. When she went deep into the snowy plateau, she felt the charm of the traditional Tibetan craftsmanship and learned that the development of the Tibetan industry could help the local left-behind women who could not get out of the mountains to find jobs nearby and improve their social status, she decided to let this non-heritage craftsmanship go out of Tibet and the whole country. In recent years, this "Shanghai craftsman" has visited the local area many times: visiting rural workshops and family workshops to help local craftsmen sort out their own crafts and excavate the bright spots of Tibet craftsmanship; Communicate with local rural cooperatives and carpet factories and learn from each other. Guo Xiuling also set up a research and development center in Shanghai, using scientific means to "transform and upgrade" the machine, introducing a number of Tibetan products with Tibetan characteristics and in line with the mainstream aesthetic, and leading Tibetan craftsmen to learn new techniques and design patterns.

In addition, Shanghai Tibetan aid officials actively promoted the "Jiangzi County Ethnic Handicraft Skills Training" project and organized a one month Pulu skill enhancement training at Shanghai Shajuan Company. This training will be divided into two batches, with a total of 50 participants. The training class continuously breaks through previous design concepts and weaving skills through techniques such as felt making, Pulu design, the use of new Pulu equipment, crochet, etc., while maintaining traditional Tibetan weaving skills. The first batch of 14 people completed training in mid May and successfully passed the assessment of Shanghai Shajuan Company. After communication and negotiation, Shajuan Company signed a contract with the local cooperative for 500 scarf orders, achieving deep cooperation.

Pulu handmade woven cashmere yak cashmere loose tassel scarf

With the continuous integration of "Shanghai experience" and "Gyangze characteristics", a number of pure woven fabrics made of yak and cashmere in high-altitude areas will be unveiled at this year's Shanghai counterpart commodity fair. These new products not only show the weight of Tibetan culture and unique national characteristics, but also have good comfort and warmth retention. I believe that this fair will capture the hearts of a group of Shanghai citizens.

Awakening consumer taste buds with "new products"

This Dragon Boat Festival, a highland barley Zongzi with rich taste "sold out" in Shanghai. According to the data, this Zongzi has sold more than 100000 pieces since it was launched more than a month ago. Among them, highland barley as the main selling point comes from Shigatse, Xizang, 4000 kilometers away.

Highland barley Zongzi

Highland barley is a unique main crop under the special geographical and ecological conditions of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. It is an indispensable staple food for the daily life of the Tibetan people, and Xigaze in Tibet is known as the "Hometown of Highland Barley in the World. In order to further increase the yield of highland barley, in Jiangzi County, Xigaze City, which is supported by Shanghai, the tenth batch of Shanghai aid to Tibet Jiangzi group reached a consensus with the villagers of Suo Gai village, Nian Dui Township, and jointly built an organic highland barley planting base in Suo Gai village with the Tibet Autonomous Region Academy of agriculture and animal husbandry and Shanghai Zangri Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd.

With the continuous growth of the local barley industry, barley products are gradually developing towards deep processing, continuously improving the added value of barley. With the joint efforts of multiple parties, deep processed products such as barley wine, barley noodles, barley biscuits, and barley yogurt are bringing more income to the local people. At the same time, in addition to these common barley products, another type of innovative product that has been jointly produced with barley has also passed the market test, reflecting its product value.

Under the docking of the Shanghai Tibet Aid Group, Shigatse Tibetan Food Co., Ltd. and a Shanghai enterprise reached a cooperation in November last year, and developed two different styles of highland barley Babaofan (Rice pudding with eight-delicious ingredients) in one month, and sold nearly 60000 boxes during the Spring Festival; This year's "popular" highland barley Zongzi at the Dragon Boat Festival is widely praised by consumers because of its rich taste. It is also a successful product with highland barley as the main raw material. New products such as highland barley Babaofan (Rice pudding with eight-delicious ingredients) and highland barley Zongzi, which are popular in Shanghai, have proved that the combination of highland barley and traditional Dim sum has been recognized by the market with actual sales, which also provides reference and experience for Shanghai and Tibet to continue deepening project assistance and consumption assistance in the future, and to more closely combine the advantages of Shanghai's large market, large circulation and large platform with the advantages of Shigatse's resource endowment.

Yadong Pearl Auricularia

In addition to Jiangzi barley, in recent years, Shanghai's aid to Tibet officials have also focused on supporting characteristic industries such as Yadong salmon, Lazi Tibetan chicken, and Sakya ethnic handicrafts. Shanghai Tibetan aid officials will continue to pay attention to the brand building of Shigatse specialty products, and provide more units, enterprises, and citizens with the opportunity to understand and taste Shigatse specialty products through multiple channels and platforms. They will also pay attention to the production and research and development of Shigatse specialty agricultural products, and assist in the sales of Shigatse specialty agricultural products.

From July 20 to 23, the 6th Shanghai Counterpart Featured Commodity Fair will be held in the Shanghai Exhibition Center. At that time, Xizang medlar, Yadong salmon, Yadong agaric, Gyantse highland barley wine, saffron and other agricultural products and featured cultural and creative products from 18 counties and districts of Shigatse will meet with Shanghai enterprises and citizens, and look forward to it together!