XINING — Instead of carrying perfume or cosmetics, 36-year-old Tibetan Kunga Chogyi always tucks a bundle of yak-hair cord into her handbag whenever she travels away from home.
On a flight to Beijing for a trade fair earlier this year, Kunga Chogyi was inspired by sunlight streaming through the clouds and wove two colorful bracelets from the cord. She sold both to flight attendants on board for 166 yuan ($25) each.
"That was my first time doing business on a plane," she recalls with a smile.
Kunga Chogyi is an inheritor of Tibetan hand-weaving, an intangible cultural heritage item in Yushu Tibetan autonomous prefecture, Qinghai province, in Northwest China.
Combining the ancient craft of yak-hair weaving with modern livestreaming e-commerce, she has sold her products nationwide, attracted young customers through innovative designs, and helped local women develop skills and earn income.
Legacy etched in thread
Born into a herding family in rural Yushu, Kunga Chogyi initially studied Tibetan medicine under her father. From her grandmother, she learned to weave Tibetan woolen fabric and make traditional yak-hair tents.
Her grandmother, who raised six children, often left them at home to trek across the mountains and weave tents for other herders to make ends meet.
"When a single thread turns into a physical object, that feeling of happiness and anticipation makes you feel reborn," Kunga Chogyi says.
Before she died, her grandmother urged her to carry on the craft. "As long as you have this skill, you won't starve," her grandmother told her.
While burying her grandmother's ashes at the family's ancestral pasture, Kunga Chogyi encountered a snow leopard, a vulnerable species that Tibetan people regard as auspicious. She named it Drolma.
"I was so excited. I felt it was a sign of my grandmother's encouragement. That's when I made up my mind to carry on this heritage."
Innovation takes flight
Initially, her work was limited to everyday necessities such as tents and herding slings. Sales were sluggish, and she was considering giving up when an unexpected trip to Sichuan province in Southwest China changed everything.
Living near the township government, she had a better command of Mandarin than her peers in her hometown. While accompanying a relative to Sichuan for medical treatment, she visited the Leshan Giant Buddha, a renowned scenic attraction in the province. There, she saw an elderly woman weaving and selling bracelets as cultural products.
"Seeing those patterns, I thought, I can do that too."
Kunga Chogyi began experimenting with new designs, creating bowl covers, bracelets, jewelry boxes and earphone cases. She incorporated gemstones such as turquoise, coral and dzi beads into her weaves, making them increasingly intricate.
Her turning point came when she used her Tibetan medical knowledge to help a tourist from Tianjin, North China, who had fainted from altitude sickness at a gemstone market in Yushu. The grateful tourist became her friend and business partner, helping her open an online store.
At its peak, the store processed orders worth 40,000 to 50,000 yuan per hour. Kunga Chogyi slept only four hours a day and hired two employees.
However, as business slowed and her father passed away, the pressure of supporting her family as the eldest of three siblings became overwhelming.
Then, once again, she spotted not one but two snow leopards on her pasture. She believed they were Drolma and her son.
"Even a snow leopard fights with all its might to feed its family. I can do it too," she says, drawing immense courage from the encounter.
The snow leopard became both her spiritual totem and creative muse. She began weaving yak-hair artworks depicting snow leopards for display on walls, which became popular both online and offline.
She also applied her father's knowledge of Tibetan medicine to dyeing, using herbal dyes to create threads in the colors of wind, water, black tents and deer. She even incorporates herbs into her crafts to make herbal sachets.
After shifting her focus to livestreaming e-commerce platforms such as RedNote and Douyin, her business boomed again. To stay competitive, she pushes herself to launch new products every week and has expanded her range to more than 300 varieties, including snow leopard brooches, lamb bag charms and wallets.
In 2024, she founded a cultural art products and trading company called Guba, meaning "a strand of cord" in Tibetan. She employs local women, providing them with raw materials and buying back their finished products. To date, she has helped 28 households increase their income, with women earning an additional 2,000 to 4,000 yuan per month without neglecting their family responsibilities.
Government support
Wangde Norbu, deputy director of the prefecture's bureau of culture, sports and tourism, noted that Yushu is promoting rural vitalization through intangible cultural heritage. By setting up booths at festivals, horse racing events and soccer matches, and organizing heritage inheritors to attend national fairs and expos, the government is helping expand the reach of these traditional crafts.
With government assistance, Kunga Chogyi has taken her products to exhibitions across China, where demand often exceeds supply. Last year alone, her company's revenue exceeded 700,000 yuan.
Kunga Chogyi's story reflects a broader national drive. In September, China issued its 15th Five-Year Plan for the Protection and Inheritance of Intangible Cultural Heritage, covering 2026-30, which calls for solid progress in safeguarding intangible cultural heritage, revitalizing traditional crafts, upgrading related workshops and using heritage to revitalize established traditional industries. Across the country, the emphasis has shifted from preservation alone to turning skills at the fingertips into sustainable livelihoods.
Kunga Chogyi is not content with simply weaving and selling. With more tourists visiting her shop for hands-on experiences, she plans to develop her pasture into an immersive tourism destination. Visitors will be able to try hand-weaving, milking yaks, churning butter and herding cattle, while also having the chance to spot a snow leopard.
"I hope more tourists can deeply experience the life of Tibetans and help convey the concept of harmonious coexistence between humans and nature," she says.
