Tibetan Art & Craft

Chawri Bazar is always a bit of a squeeze and our spot at 321/19 near Chipla Gate is no different. Tibetan Art & Craft is full of things we’ve gathered over time and it’s a bit cramped inside because we try to fit everything onto the wooden shelves. You have to be careful not to knock anything over when you walk through the narrow aisles. We spend a lot of time just dusting the items and talking to the people who wander in from the street to escape the heat. The Chipla Gate area has a lot of history and you can feel it in the old, thick walls of the building. It’s noisy outside with the rickshaws and people shouting, but inside it’s a little bit quieter. We don’t have a big staff here, just a couple of us who know exactly where everything is kept. Sometimes we even forget where a specific piece is and have to hunt for it behind the counters for a while. The lighting isn't the best in the back, but it works for what we do. We open early because the market starts moving before the sun is even fully up. By the time evening rolls around, we are usually pretty tired from standing on the hard floor all day. We just close the heavy shutters and head home like everyone else in the bazaar. It’s a long day but it feels right being in this part of town.