YITSO HIMA - CHARU Designer Brand
What Are We Doing?
Personnel
Training local people in handicrafts and passing on culture.
Platform
Founding of the designers' union, promoting their products and conducting cultural media outreach.
Design
Working with local artisans to redesign products and packaging free of charge.
Museums
Participation in the design of the Sanjiangyuan Regional Museum, driving local cultural tourism industry.
SanJiangYuan
Designers Alliance
Founded in 2017 as a nonprofit initiative by the Sanjiangyuan Environmental Protection Association in collaboration with multiple designers, the Sanjiangyuan Designers Alliance focuses on providing innovative design training and management guidance for traditional craftsmanship in Tibetan communities. The program aims to promote sustainable community development, increase herders' income, and foster a nomadic lifestyle that aligns with modern times.
The Alliance conducts design training and commercial guidance for agricultural and pastoral areas. Over 30 designers, artists, architects, photographers, and business consultants have participated in its training programs, benefiting 10 cooperatives and social enterprises with more than 100 pro bono skill-building sessions.
Pa Drokpa Cooperative
In 2017, Mu Mu and Yu Qing served as the chief designers of Pa Drokpa Cooperative, while Bao Tingting as a business consultant.
The project won the “2021 China Eco Design Award (Product Design)” and was selected for Close-up: 100 Moments for a Better China.
Tsokhri Cooperative
Tsokhri village, which is at the source of Yangtze River in Yushu Prefecture with 4,600 meters above sea level, is also the core area of Sanjiangyuan Reserve. Since 2020, under the guidance of Sanjiangyuan Conservation Association, chief designer Lin Quan and crafts expert Xing Zhen have conducted 11 training programmes at the Tsokhri Cooperative.
YITSO HIMA & Tsokhri
Tibetan Card Weaving
It utilizes perforated cards to control the sinking and floating of the warp threads by choosing between the front and back.
Tsokhri is located in the Yangtze River source area of the Sanjiangyuan, which is the Core Reserve in Yushu Prefecture, Qinghai Province.
The average age of the pastoralists in the Tsokchi Cooperative is 60 years old.
They were the first pastoralists to protect wildlife and the environment.
The Conservancy has invited textile experts and designers to train pastoralists in Tsokhri village.We have designed belts, hair bands, camera straps, backpack straps, bracelets, sutra buckles and other products.
We hope that through the re-design of the traditional craft of card weaving, we can help the nomadic pastoralists in the community to realize the sustainable development of nomadic culture.We give new life to dead traditions and crafts.
Duja Zero-waste Center
Duja Zero-Waste Center was designed by Wuzhi in Charu, which won the “2021 China Eco Design Award (Space Design)” and was selected for Close-up: 100 Moments for a Better China.
Museums
In 2019, the government of Litang County launched a series of mini-museums in the Ancient Town of Litang. Our brand founder Wu Zhi participated in seven of them as the chief designer.
Tribute to the City in the Sky - Litang with Tibet's first micro-museum group
318 Travel Memory Museum
Litang Tibetan Opera Museum
Litang Wax Museum
Himalayan Voice Museum
Nangqian Red Salt Experience Center
WUMING EDU-AID
The team, created by the creators of CHARU, has been managing the one-to-one sponsorship of more than 100 Tibetan orphans, single-parent families, and children of environmentalists every year, with the help of sponsors and volunteers from all over the world, for more than 10 years since 2013.
