At this point, perhaps it is important for us to examine who is an artisan

Introduction
An artisan is a creator, a master, a producer of goods & services. An artisan is a person who is able to formulate an idea in his or her mind and express his or her thoughts into reality. More importantly, it is a lifestyle, an art, and a philosophy of self-realization.

Thus, when you look around in Tibet, especially in rural self-containedself-sustained communities, almost everyone is an artisan The painter of traditional designs on buildings, old man making terra-cotta religious images, the carpenter and the list goes on and on…

Now, let’s us further examine the present conditions of rural Tibetan artisans. Please note that because of time limitation, this presentation will only highlight some important characteristics of rural artisan activities in Tibet.

Production for Self
Firstly, one of the outstanding characteristics of rural artisans in Tibet is that they mostly produce for self usage. What is means is that if they want a pair of shoes, they will make it themselves; if they want a basket to contain firewood, they will go and harvest the bamboo and weave a basket to their specific requirements.

Production for Non-Self
Besides producing for themselves, they sometimes produce for the informal market. For example, if they have surplus wool, they may weave some fabric and sell it locally or have a third party sells it at another town or village. Or they can also barter it for goods and services that they are in need off. Or as in the case of silver smiths, they only produce products upon orders.

Traditional Market
At the same time, their traditional markets are being encroached Han Chinese migrants. As these Han settlers are better skilled with better technologies, rural Tibetan artisans are very quickly losing their traditional market share.

Non-Traditional Markets
Exporting their products to Lhasa is limited because of poor infra-structural and transportation conditions. Moreover, supporting institutions such as business net-works, financial establishment do not favor such activities.

Tourist Market
Most traditional artisan products for the tourist market found in Lhasa, are produced either in India, Nepal or Sichuan. The cost is cheap, and when pitched against this, rural Tibetan artisans do not have the competitive edge to participate in this activity.

Tourist Artisan Products
As for the quality of rural artisan products, the quality is not too good or at bests, inconsistent. This is because the principle for self-use focuses on this utilitarian principle rather than aesthetic or quality criteria. This is especially so for everyday products such as bamboo storage baskets.

Design
In terms of designs, most products made by rural artisans are traditional. And rightfully it should be so as these products are expressions of traditions. Yet some artisans have voiced concerned that they are no longer able to execute some complex traditional designs. It is sad to learn that there has been a decline in the quality of traditional designs. In terms of contemporary designs, there are none to be found.

Technology
Next, let’s talk about technology. Because of Tibet’s isolation, technological advancement outside of Tibet has not been able to penetrate and influence artisan acclivities. Consequently, the level of technology practiced by rural artisans is simplistic, primary and basic. In some cases, the tools, such as silver smiting tools, are more than 3 generations old!

Costing
Consequently, they are not able to sell their products competitively. For example, it takes a weaver 15 days to spin enough wool to weave 8 metres of fabric because of the lack of spinning technology for wool. When calculated, the price of the fabric is more than tripled in cost compared to similar fabric produced elsewhere.

Skills
In terms of skill levels, one cannot deny that the rural artisan skills in Tibet are traditionally plentiful. For example, it can be noted that most women in villages are able to satisfy their household fabric needs by weaving the requirements themselves.

Quality
On the other hand, high quality skills are noticeably absent or at least, extremely rare. To illustrate, when asked if they are able to recognize any weaver with special talents or skills, most weavers replied that the skills which they possess are ‘all about the same’ in terms of quality and standard.

Traditional Skills
More importantly, it must be noted that there is a possibility of a steady decline in traditional skills as well. For example, when asked present day silver smiths if they are able to produce what their fathers or grand fathers had produced before, most of them answered that they no longer have the ability to do so.