Tibetan Women

Tibetan women usually lead a more difficult life than Tibetan men. Tibetan women are in charge of most of the household chores. Nomad women wake up early in the morning to collect yak dung to be dried. Since most of Tibet is treeless, yak dung is dried and used as fuel for fires. Women milk the yaks before the men or children take them up the mountains to graze. Women are also in charge of cooking the meals and taking care of the children.

This first picture is of an old pilgrim in front of Jokhang Temple in Lhasa.

Tibetan women can often be found holding a prayer wheel in one hand and a set of prayer beads in the other. The older Tibetan women get, the more time they spend holding these items.

Tibetans are very hospitable. I have entered over a hundred Tibetans homes over the years and each one I was greeted by a woman giving me a cup of milk or butter tea. Along with tea, the women also offer fresh bread, momo's or dried yak meat to their guests.

This second picture is of a nomad woman and her daughter near Chumarleb (Qumalai) in Kham.

Tibetan women who live in remote rural areas still  wear traditional clothes. Tibetan coats (called chuba) are long and are lined with sheep furs on the outside. In some areas of Tibet, women will wear sheep fur lined hats as well. In many cultures women are responsible for making clothes, but in most of the Tibetan homes I have visited men have been the ones who make clothes.

This third picture is taken near Ngoring Lake in Amdo.

It is still common for Tibetan women who come from nomad families to get married at age 16 or 17. Tibetans who live in larger towns and are able to go to high school or even college usually wait until they are 22 to 25 before getting married.

Though Han (Chinese) people are only able to have one child, Tibetans and other minority groups in China are allowed to have two and sometimes three children. In remote areas of Tibet, it is common to see Tibetan families with up to 6 children.

This fourth picture is taken near Jyekundo in Kham.

This last picture is of a woman sitting along the steps of Drepung Monastery in Lhasa.

Comments

[Geoffrey]

I met a grandmother and her family descending the Potalla steps this summer. She was dressed traditionally, and I think her weight probably matched her age, about 93. She let me know through interesting sign language that the younger lady with her was her daughter and that the two young girls were her grand daughters. While I held her arm down the steps, which she knew well from many pilgrimmages, she was actually the steadier of the two of us. One last note: she had a swastika tattoo on her left hand, signifying good health and good luck. Not, of course, the usual distorted meaning.

[Tess]

Thanks for some great information! It helped me with my school project :)

[David Lee]

Thank you for an enriching experience on the life of these people. Photos are very beautiful and artistically taken.

[Shanna]

These are beautiful photos and such interesting information with them. Thank you *so* much for sharing all of this information.

[Liudmila]

Dear friend,
excuse me off topic pls, I'm very interested in the theme I described here:
http://vacation-travel-talk.blogspot.com/2008/02/valley-of-death-in-tibet.html
that seems to me very amazing.
The problem is I did not find any information about it.
That is why I alow me to disturb you with the question: maybe you know something about it?
Thank you very much for your time
Sincerely