Divaricate Strophanthus Seed is also called Gelsemium elegans Benth. It has red or yellow flowers and hyper toxic roots. Tseren’s family maintains frequent contacts with Divaricate Strophanthus Seed.
Tseren’s family is the only family that makes Tibetan paper at present. They pick Divaricate Strophanthus Seeds, cut off their flowers, leaves and stems, and take the roots as raw materials.
The 1st step of making Tibetan paper is use an iron hammer to shatter the roots so that the skin is separated from the pulp. Then use a small knife to take away the fibrous tissues between skin and pulp and put them to airing. The 3rd step is to put the dry fibrous tissues into a pan, fill it with water and boil the tissues for about 2 hours. The 4th step is to take out the residues, pound them into paste by a stone, and stir it smoothly with water to become pulp. When the gauze frame is evenly permeated by water and floats on the pool, evenly pour the pulp onto the gauze, lift the frame levelly from the water, and air it under the sunlight. If the sunlight is strong, the paper pulp will be dried up after 4 houts. The last step is simply to take off the dried thing and that is a piece of elegant and durable Tibetan paper.
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