Go west Tibet to visit hometown of cashmere goats

July,27 2016 BY Master Catherine Jigme 0 COMMENTS

In August, 2012, Ngari of west Tibet was awarded an honorable title of “hometown of China’s cashmere goats”. Let’s go west Tibet to visit hometown of cashmere goats in next summer.

Known as the top of the roof of the world, Ngari is situated in the west of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau of Western China and borders on India and Nepal with a total area of 345,000 square kilometers that accounts for nearly one-third of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). Run through by the Gandise Mountains in the middle, it lies between the Karakorum Mountains in the north and the Himalayas in the south. The hilly area with an average elevation of 4,500 meters has been reputed as the “plateau on the plateau, roof of the world’s roof”.

Ngari is an important pasturing area in Tibet, which is one of the five pasturing districts in China. The endless and cold winter in Ngari makes its 0.39 billion acres of grass rich of crude protein, crude fat, NFE (nitrogen free extract), and lack of crude fiber. Thus, Tibetan cashmere goats are massively produced due to such arctic climate and high-quality pasture of Ngari. Pure cashmere of Tibetan goats is reputed as “fiber gem” and “soft gold”.

Tibetan cashmere goats’ cultivation has a history of 5000 years. Together with the neighboring Cashmere region, Ngari is the important production area as well as the collecting and distributing centers. Due to the location, the pashm was named “Cashmere” by the international society. And the Ngari cashmere is the best due to it’s purist blood, smallest fiber count, and best textile property.

The scientific research and market promotion of Ngari cashmere goats were started from the early 1990s. After years of development, researches on the Ngari cashmere goats have achieved success and won various kinds of awards.

Until now, there are 24 demonstrative villages, 3,531 demonstrative households and 14,124 farmers and herdsmen cultivating Ngari cashmere goats. The breeding stock has reached 1,414,500, accounting for 50.4% of the overall domestic animals and ranking first place in the whole Ngari region. The amount of high quality Ngari cashmere goats has reached 350,000. Altogether an annually output of 304.4 tons of cashmere has brought an income of 82.188 million yuan (about $13.2 million) from the domestic and oversea market.

There are many famous toursit sites in Ngari area, including holy Mount Kailash, sacred Lake Manasarovar, ancient ruins of Guge Kingdom, etc.

About the Author - Master Catherine Jigme

With exceptional passion and outstanding leadership, Mrs. Catherine has dedicated herself to Tibet inbound tourism and China tour for 15 years. As one of the handful females who see great potential of Chinese inbound tourism, Catherine has made great contribution to promoting Tibet tourism and enhancing the employment of Tibetans and prosperity of local Tibetan community.

Over the years, she travelled overseas with Tibet Tourism Bureau many times to promote Tibet tourism. Currently, Catherine works as the marketing director of Tibet Vista, an opinion leader behind the whole team of Tibet Vista.

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