By Dorothy Field
In the fall of 2003 I spent six weeks in Dharamsala, India, volunteering with a Tibetan papermaking and paper products project. In January, I’d logged onto VolunteerTibet’s web-site, thinking it might be interesting to work in Dharamsala. I was amazed to find a listing for a paper designer at the Tibetan Welfare Office (TWO). I applied and was accepted.
Dharamsala, where the Dalai Lama fled in 1959, is the seat of the Tibetan Government in Exile. Upper Dharamsala, once a pristine Himalayan ridge with a small Indian settlement several kilometers above the main town of Dharamsala, is now the heart of the Tibetan diaspora. The busy bazaar is a small grid of narrow, pitted streets, just above the peaceful temple complex built as the Dalai Lama’s center. The market caters to the Tibetan community as well as hordes of westerners, there to study Buddhism, volunteer with the Tibetans, or just hang out. The ditches are a mess of foul water, plastic garbage, organic waste, and cow shit. Upper Dharamsala is not much worse than many other Indian towns, but the rapid population growth has put an enormous strain on an infrastructure that didn’t exist.
In 1994, as part of their work with newly arrived Tibetans, TWO began a project called Clean Upper Dharamsala. They hired a small core of Green Workers who drive around town collecting and sorting garbage. Thus, TWO created jobs, took responsibility for Tibetans’ impact on the town, and found a way to repay some of the debt Tibetans feels towards the Indian government for providing them refuge over these past forty years.
Around the time they began the clean up project, they started, with the help of a Dutch volunteer, to make handmade paper from the dry paper waste. Using simple equipment they built themselves, their first paper was rough and overly laborious. Since then, with the aid of a Swedish NGO, TWO has been able to buy a Hollander beater, a screw press, a calendar press, and two lifting boxes. After receiving training in other parts of India, TWO’s workers began to recycle cotton off-cuts as well as paper. They also instituted precise measurement of all additives, using the mildest chemicals they can. TWO now makes a range of papers including recycled cotton with petals and ferns, dark paper for photo albums, crumpled papers and papers textured with woven designs for book covers, and flat papers in neon colors. A woman from New Zealand taught them to make blank books using their paper. Now they market blank books, photo albums, and stationary in their own Green Shop and for export. The Swedish NGO is a steady customer but gradually TWO is exporting to other countries as well. At present TWO hires twelve people as papermaker/ bookbinders, ten Green Workers, and one person to staff the Green Shop.
Unemployment is a major problem for Tibetan refugees. The Welfare Office’s priority is job creation and it is a model employer, offering job training, good salaries, and excellent benefits. TWO hoped that by improving product design, they could increase their orders and thus hire more people. That’s where I came in. Since 1984, I’ve traveled in Asia, visiting papermaking projects. I was impressed with TWO’s interlocking aims of environmental commitment and job creation.
The paper and book workshops are on two floors of a building dating back to British days. The papermaking area is one large room with good light and a cement floor but no separate space for the beater, so the workplace can be very noisy. Power failures are frequent and the water supply is on and off. They have a large cistern to store water, but during the dry times there just isn’t enough. Bookbinding takes place on the floor above in a few small rooms, and a porch. When things get very busy, some of the workers sit on the roof.
Because all their training has taken place in India, TWO’s paper looks very much like papers made by other small papermills in India. I hoped to introduce ways to make TWO’s paper and books reflect Tibetan culture and aesthetics, partly because I believe buyers respond to that, and partly because workers feel more connected to products that reflect their own lives.
On my first weekend in Dharamsala, I noticed daphne growing wild along a trail above the town. Daphne is the primary papermaking plant in Nepal and was used in parts of Tibet. I returned with some of the papermakers to cut enough daphne to make a sample. Then we had to come up with a way to strip and cook the fiber. We built a fire on the floor of the workshop to steam the branches. The smoke made both the papermaking and the bookbinding areas almost unbearable. We used the wood ashes from steaming the daphne branches as an alkali to cook the stripped inner bark. This was environmentally sound but it was difficult to judge the strength of the cook.
We cooked the bast fiber several times, adding increasing amounts of wood ash as we went. Finally, sick of the smoke, I decided it was enough though I knew it was premature. Hand beating was difficult and sheet formation suffered. We resoaked, rebeat, and dyed some of the paper. The resulting sheets were elegant and lustrous like traditional Himalayan paper. Everyone was exited to see that they could make such paper. I was nervous. My knowledge of deforestation in Nepal has taught me that from the outset a paper project must take into consideration any adverse spin-offs that may result if their project becomes successful. I pictured the hills above Dharamsala stripped bare, not just by the TWO workers but by others who would copy their production. I imagined the monsoon rains carrying tons of soil down the hills. At the same time I was proud, feeling I’d reconnected the workers to their own paper traditions. Fortunately, TWO is committed to environmental responsibility. We discussed the ideas of starting a small daphne plantation, and of keeping daphne paper for precious things, frame-able designs or doorway prayers, and using the recycled paper for items that would be tossed out. I hope over time that daphne paper may be something made in Dharamsala with full awareness of the environmental issues.
We talked about other plant fibers that might be used to add texture to the recycled paper. The most obvious were corn stalks, sugar cane, banana, and gunnysacks. We cooked up some corn using baking soda bought in the market and beat up some gunnysacks. We were getting ready to experiment with jute/cotton mixtures when the water supply, which had already been sluggish, dried up totally. That shut down papermaking for the duration of my stay.
When I arrived, I showed the workers some books with a long narrow format, similar to unbound Tibetan prayer books. I also showed catalogues of other paper products made in Asia. We talked about new product ideas and new ways to package TWO’s stationary. I’d spend the morning working with the papermakers and return to the bookbinders to find several new models they’d worked out on their own. We’d evaluate them and they’d start on new ones. Their skills and ingenuity were impressive. Then TWO received a large order from France. All the bookbinders plus all the papermakers were put to work. When it seemed I’d be leaving India before the order was complete, I worked with one man to finalize some models.
During this time, I talked to everyone – papermakers, bookbinders, the man who ran the Green Shop, and various westerners – about which product designs, colors, and papers they liked. Consistently, everyone hated the neon colors. They were the products left to molder on the shelves of the Green Shop. That made it simple – no more neon paper. Instead they’d use the same dyes used for the crumpled paper when making flat paper. This decision led the way to other ideas for product variations.
I’d anticipated that TWO might have some kind of printing facility but they didn’t. Several years before, they’d made hand-painted cards – a sure money loser. I showed them cards from around Asia and introduced the idea of making several sets of designs to be commercially printed onto their paper. Over time, TWO will add their own line of beautiful cards to their product list.
Packaging large orders for shipment is a huge problem. The Swedish NGO complained that many boxes arrived with books damaged. Before my arrival, two Swedish volunteers worked to find ways to reinforce the packing boxes and make the packaging more secure. The toggles and loose cord the bookbinders use for closures on many books also made it difficult to pack the books flat and tight. I worked on some cleaner, toggle-less designs, both for a different aesthetic and to aid in packing the books.
TWO’s workers had had little chance to see books and papers other than what they made themselves. With a bit of exposure to my suggestions and to other paper products, they came up with ideas of their own. Those in charge at TWO will start introducing new designs in the Green Shop to see which customers like and then add the most successful to their product line.
Though TWO’s studios are well equipped with the basic large equipment, their work spaces are crowded and their smaller equipment old and worn. On my return home, I mailed a parcel with pH strips, self-healing boards, bone folders, a yankee drill and safety items such as earplugs and dust masks. Given the quality of the work they produce now, I can only imagine what they could do with improved work areas and some new tools.
Twice while I was in Dharamsala I went down to Dolmaling, headquarters of the Tibetan Nuns Project, where they have a nunnery, a school, and their own very small papermaking project. They use their paper primarily for cards sent as thank you notes to donors. Dolmaling almost sings with its quiet high energy. Tibetan nuns traditionally haven’t received the same rigorous training in the Buddhist precepts and philosophy as monks. Following the Dalai Lama’s teaching, the nun’s education at Dolmaling is equal to what monks receive.
Like most volunteers, my time in Dharamsala was a mixture of elation and frustration. Volunteers tend to arrive with ambitious plans and too little time to realize them. We wonder why everyone isn’t rushing to put our ideas into action immediately. To me, the exchange has been successful if I feel as nourished by the ideas of those I work with as they feel by my input. In my mind I hear the songs, laughter, and Tibetan chanting that were the everyday accompaniment to the work, and I wish myself back there.
More than anything, I wish for the success of this and all the other ambitious projects Tibetans are undertaking in India and around the world. Living culture is not set in amber. When the way opens for Tibetans to return to home, they will go back with vast experience they never could have imagined. As they embrace the land and the people they left behind, they will return with much to share. One cannot spend time in a Tibetan community without wishing to see this happen. May it be so.
Many thanks to everyone at TWO and Dolmaling who took such good care of me. The following are several web-sites you might want to visit:
Tibetan Welfare Office: www.tibet.net/twodhasa – check out their product catalogue Tibetan Nuns Project: www.tnp.org – for general information on the project www.volunteertibet.org – for information on volunteering in Dharamsala Canada Tibet Committee: www.tibet.ca – information of the political situation in Tibet
