BEAUTY & MISERY - KATHMANDU'S ARTISANS ARE CALLING

The most striking things about Nepal is the beauty among the apparent chaos.
Nothing sad here but profound and intense stare at a brutal reality.
If the Nepalese people have experienced a drowning society and lately a devastating nature, the magic is still there. Smile, spirituality and beauty are still rising above misery.
After a peaceful breakfast at my hotel, I step into an improbable cab to bring me to Pia Dam's cashmere workshop. I could feel the joy of my taxi driver, who might have queued for hours the day before to fill his tank in deprived gasoline Kathmandu.
Blond queen in her Kingdom, Danish Pia arrived in Nepal 28 years ago to establish a workshop creating silk garments, bringing suitcases of silk purchased in China, over the Tibetan plateau to Kathmandu.
Love, Life or family kept her in Kathmandu where she finally established a workshop of hand loomed cashmere shawls, ponchos, blankets and other one of a kind hand knitted item while her husband Karma produces hand loomed Tibetan carpets. 12 skilled artisans are engaged in various task of spinning, weaving, dying, knotting or packing goods to be exported toward international destinations. A labor of love and idealism, passion and grace, hidden away in the Himalayan hills.

CHANG TANG by PIA DAM - finest cashmere made in the Kathmandu valley.
Buddanilkantha, Kathmandu, Nepal / +977 14370741 (h) +977 9851025512 (m) 
email/ changtang8@gmail.com / http://www.carmentashi.com

NEWA CHEN Guest house - next to Patan Durbar Square, Kwalakhu Rd, Patan 44600, Nepal - Kathmandu www.newachen.com (some time the website is down, but this well-preserved example of a traditional Newari house of the Kathmandu Valley is well there and you can book through Agoda or Trip Advisor) 

HIMALAYAN STYLE - by Thomas Kelly and Claire Burkert founder of Maithili art and craft, , this book concentrate on the elegance, functionality, harmony and inherent beauty of Himalayan art, craft and architecture.