Our first trip to Shangrila was last winter. We had to take a sleeper bus from Kunming to Shangrila, it was about 15 hours. When we finally arrived and stepped off the bus, we were both awe struck and speechless! The buildings look different, the people look different and didn't speak Mandarin. The Mountains were stunning, there was snow everywhere and a yak walking down the road! (and yes, the yak had the bright handwoven blanket on and look amazing!)
Later that afternoon, on our walk around the city, in the center square of town we met a few local women selling beads, coral, turquoise, dzi beads, malas, strings, yak bone- everything for making malas, you name it they had it!
Through the week we got to know them and their families quite well. They were all from Tibet, but now lived in Shangrila and bring all their jewelry supplies from Lhasa, Tibet.
They showed me how to tie some of the special mala knots. They taught us different meanings of the Dzi beads, how to say some of the Tibetan phrases on the silver cuff bracelets and how to make the Dzi necklaces they same way they do.
They were amazing people and we were so lucky to meet them. Our last day in Shangrila we spent with them in the square, where they sell their jewelry. We spent hours sorting through bags and bags of beads and countless dzi beads!
My husband and I ended up leaving a lot of our clothes in Shangrila to make room in our suitcases for all the beads we had bought!
(the hostel we were staying at was run by monks, so all of our clothes we left were donated to the monks school.)
When we got back to Guangzhou we were so excited to start making malas and sorting through the dzi beads we had bought in Shangrila.
And this was the start of Shangrila Craft!
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