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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Ganesh Himal Company Brings Tibetan Crafts And Clothing To North America

Rachel Konrad Staff Writer

Pines and scrub brush, along with a howling golden retriever, shield an enclave of Tibet sympathizers who send midnight faxes and correspond via Internet with Asian refugees in Nepal.

New-age Communist spies? No.

Hippie political activists? Hardly.

Denise Attwood and Rick Connor prefer the title “wholesale importers.” The couple, who work out of their home south of the Spokane city limits, contract with Tibetan artisans and refugees to design and distribute Tibetan jewelry, clothes and crafts.

They founded Ganesh Himal Trekking & Trading Co. in 1984, after a post-college soul-searching sojourn in the mountains of Asia. They had no idea their cottage business - named after the Tibetan god of luck - would become an international distributor of high-quality, hand-made goods such as shayma cotton shirts, wool backpacks and Tibetan drums.

“We had no intention of starting a business back then,” said Attwood, a non-practicing member of the Washington State Bar Association with an undergraduate degree in environmental studies. “But when we saw how beautiful the sweaters and crafts were, we knew the artisans needed a market.”

The company, which Attwood and Connor run out of a mobile home next to their house, contracts with folk-art shops and ethnic clothes boutiques in the United States and Canada. Last year the company grossed more than $250,000 in sales.

In addition to wholesale operations, Ganesh Himal takes the show on the road. Connor, Attwood and Michele Richardson, Attwood’s sister and the company bookkeeper, travel throughout the Northwest to display wares at art fairs and festivals. Last weekend, the trio supervised booths in Spokane, Seattle, Olympia and Bellingham.

The owners also spend about a month in Nepal every year, working with artisans to perfect fabrics and patterns for North American consumers. Because westerners have different tastes - not to mention much taller physiques - than the average Nepalese man or woman, Attwood and Connor have to alter traditional Nepalese garb to make it a hit at home.

“Only a small percentage of the American population will buy truly ethnic products,” Attwood said. “People here like different colors, they need different sizes, they don’t want to dress exactly like Nepalese peasants. It’s just a reality a retailer has to face.”

For example, brightly colored, striped Nepalese women’s aprons are among the most ubiquitous garments in Nepal. But Attwood and Connor know that aprons do not typically sell well with American consumers. So they direct their Nepalese designers to use apron fabric to decorate hot-selling vests or jackets.

Similarly, Nepalese master weavers and crafters who contract with Ganesh Himal practice block printing - a labor-intensive, centuries-old method of dying cloth - to decorate napkins or tablecloths in non-traditional patters suitable to western dining rooms.

Although Ganesh Himal products cater specifically to American and Canadian shoppers, the owners don’t fear the company contributes to the Americanization of Nepalese or Tibetan culture.

“Certainly we’re interested in what sells, but we’re also confident that we’re saving ancient traditions that would otherwise be lost,” said Attwood is coordinator of the Eastern Washington Tibetan Rights Campaign. The group helped lure an entourage of Gyuto monks to chant Tibetan hymns at The Met earlier this year.

“We’re importing a culture to America that most people would have otherwise never had exposure to,” she said.

Besides, the master weavers and artisans earn enough money to afford a standard of living well above their street vendor rivals, Attwood added.

Ganesh Himal acquires its products through a contract with Dhukuti, an artisan women’s cooperative in Kathmandu, Nepal. The artisans receive almost half of wholesale revenue. Also, the cooperative’s jewelers get 12 paid vacation days and two weeks off for holidays and festivals, plus full medical benefits and two weeks of paid sick leave per year.

“It’s not like we’re changing the world,” said Connor, an environmental studies graduate with a commercial fisherman’s license. “But we’re changing the lives of individuals. It’s a one-at-a-time thing.”

Consumers who missed the Ganesh Himal tent at PigOut in the Park last weekend can purchase the imports at Homestead Leather & Shoes, Rings & Things and Global Folk Art Bazaar.

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