Grassland provides inspiration

Dondrup Tsering at his shop. Palden Nyima / China Daily

New-style robes

The inspiration for his clothes shop came from seeing how many rural Tibetans exchanged the colorful robes they wore in their villages for ordinary city clothes when they traveled to Lhasa.

"When I saw how many Tibetan people do not wear Tibetan robes in the city, I became sad and I began to think how to encourage them to wear Tibetan robes in the city," Dondrup said.

So he innovated.

"With their long sleeves and heavy volume, traditional Tibetan robes were produced according to the aesthetic standards of Tibetan people in the old days," he said. "New robes had to be made in order to satisfy the needs of modern Tibetans."

He chose the Tibetan word Khawajan, which hearkens to the snow-capped hills, for his company's name. The clothes have caught the fancy of young Tibetans, especially students who study outside of Tibet, but want clothes that signal their roots, Dondrup said.

Mimar Tsering, a student at Tibet University, said he likes the fit and the style.

"As a student, I find the clothes made by Khawajan more convenient than the traditional ones because the robe has short sleeves and a popular style," Mimar, 23, said. "It's convenient to wear, and with Tibetan design, it is more fashionable."

With increasing interest in the brand, Dondrup has opened 10 branch shops in other Tibetan communities, such as Xining, the capital of Qinghai province, and Hainan Tibetan autonomous prefecture of Qinghai province.

Milk from grasslands

With the clothes shop off the ground, Dondrup turned his attention to opening a yak dairy store near the Potala Palace in Lhasa. Its products include butter, yogurt, cheese and milk.

In a nod to modern times, while traditional yak dairy products are made by hand, all of Dondrup's goods are machine produced in sterile conditions.

Although the production process has been modernized, the dairy products retain "the real traditional taste", he said.

Dondrup was determined to buy his dairy's raw materials directly from the nomads. The goal initially proved financially disastrous.

"The dairy products were transported on flights for a distance of more than 2,000 kilometers, and I had almost closed the business as I suffered many failures at first," Dondrup said.

But he was determined to succeed, as so many of his fellows on the grasslands benefited from the business. More than 20 nomadic families provide him with yak milk daily for the dairy.

Kalzangyal, a nomad in Machu county who sells milk to Dondrup, said the dairy's purchases have helped them to significantly increase their incomes.

"With our income doubling, we no longer need to sell our yaks to make money," Kalzangyal said.

Sumyar Mar, the name of Dondrup's yak dairy shop, is derived both from the renowned Tibetan poem The Epic of King Gesar and the rare butter that is made from the milk drawn from the mother of a three-year-old yak. Tibetans prize this butter as the most nutritious.

The shop is still struggling financially, as too few customers have discovered it as it is hidden near the palace parking lot in Lhasa.

"I had almost closed the door of the dairy shop, but I continued, because I do not want to see nomads disappointed by my decision," Dondrup said.

During his last visit home to the grasslands, he was presented with many white hada, the silk scarves representing purity and gratitude. It inspired him to continue the dairy, despite the setbacks.