Tibetan carpets - the best known are called Wangden and Gyantse carpets - are hand-knotted from the wool of highland sheep, which is long, coarse and rich in lanolin, and they look and wear unlike anything made on the plains. The craft has a long history tied to the monasteries and the noble estates, which commissioned floor coverings, seat cushions and horse blankets, and it survived the twentieth century partly through the workshops re-established after the 1950s. Several ateliers in Lhasa and Gyantse now take visitors through the whole process.
From fleece to finished carpet
The wool is washed, carded and spun by hand, then dyed with mineral and plant colourants - madder for reds, indigo for blues, walnut husk and rhubarb root for yellows and browns - before being knotted onto a vertical or horizontal loom at a density measured in knots per square inch. A large carpet takes a team several months. The distinctive Tibetan features are the slightly higher pile, the vegetable dyes which fade unevenly into softer tones, and the design vocabulary: lotus, endless knot, cloud, tiger stripe and dragon motifs, often arranged in a medallion rather than a repeating field pattern.
Visiting a workshop
Lhasa's workshops sit in the old town and on the outskirts, and several are set up for visitors with a short tour, a demonstration of spinning and knotting, and a shop. Gyantse has its own carpet tradition and smaller ateliers where you can watch the whole process with far fewer people around. Prices are set by size, knot density and wool quality, and larger pieces can be shipped. Because the wool is heavy and greasy, a good carpet feels dense and smells faintly of lanolin; that is a sign of the real thing rather than a fault.
Practical notes
Foreign visitors to Tibet require a Tibet Travel Permit arranged in advance through a licensed agency, and travelling outside Lhasa requires an additional permit; your agency will handle both as part of a booked itinerary. Workshops are usually visited as a scheduled stop on a guided tour rather than independently. If you are buying, discuss shipping and customs before you commit, since wool products may be subject to inspection. The altitude in Lhasa is around 3,600 metres, so take the first day slowly.
