These rugs are special.

Special in more ways than you could imagine.

I did not want to take away the focus from the students as this is their day and each one of them had done such a great job of designing these wonderful carpets.

But it would be a sin to not mention the special group people who made this possible.

Weavers, and dyers, graph masters and washers who kept working when things just collapsed around them. These carpets were started in the Kingdom of Nepal and were finished in a democratic republic.

There were days when nothing worked, days when there was no power, no transport, no supplies, people were getting arrested, killed and we didn’t know what was going to happen tomorrow, in the next hour. But a commitment had been made and we were determined to finish the rugs – in time no matter what.

There were days when I had to ask dyer to tweak a color just a little more, squinting at colored yarn in dark rooms with no light as the power had been cut off for days or redo a graph because a flower did not look right or and curve was off when people were getting tear gassed on the street outside.

There were days of blockade when supplies were cut off, we did not know if we would have food to eat, but each time there was a break in the curfew and everyone was rushing out to buy food we would be running to weave the carpet just a little more.

I hope each student and each sponsor liked the results and if there were errors, if there were things that were not quite the way they envisioned it or it was just a little off, please forgive us but don’t give up on us. The weavers worked hard and their resilience paid off and the proof is all these carpets hanging on the wall. And what they do need right now is work, right to work and earn a living – Thank you again on behalf of all the weavers back home.

Passang Dorjee

Kathmandu.

tsampa@mail.com.np