Neighbors
Ritoma

Neighbors

Norlha is a member of a closely knit community where relations between people and those with animals are closely synched in the rhythm of every...

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Picnic 2
Ritoma

Picnic 2

On the second day, the games begin; traditional games like tug of war and races, party games like eating a dangling apple or feeding each other...

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Picnic 1
Ritoma

Picnic 1

Tibetan picnics are a world unto themselves, a celebration of summer, of blue skies with billowing clouds, of green expanses; a time to enjoy n...

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The Fastest Chuba at Norlha
Clothing

The Fastest Chuba at Norlha

In Tibet, men and women wear the same outer garment, the chuba, though they do it in different ways. The women wear their chubas ankle length, ...

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MUD WALLS
Ritoma

MUD WALLS

Mud walls, often seen as the poorer relative to stone, have stood the test of time as well, if not better than their stone counterparts. Among ...

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An American on the Plateau
Ritoma

An American on the Plateau

Willard Johnson is from Seattle, Washington. He studied at MIT and after graduating pursued his passion for basketball, playing on teams in Aus...

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Mother's Day
Ritoma

Mother's Day

Compassion is the core of Buddhist practice. Developed through mind training, it is generated by considering all sentient beings as one’s mothe...

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Serwu Kyap
Ritoma

Serwu Kyap

For Norlha employees, who lived as nomads, work at the atelier is a new chapter in their lives. Though sheltered from the snow, rain and snow, ...

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Women's Day
Ritoma

Women's Day

Traditional nomad women have hard lives. The generation of women now in their sixties typically bore a dozen children, many having experienced ...

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The Guard House
Home

The Guard House

As Norlha grew, the small, original buildings that had been built on a low budget around the interior of the south wall were replaced with bett...

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Dinner in the Vastness
Home

Dinner in the Vastness

My parents loved beautiful tableware. I inherited dozens of tablecloths, tea and coffee cups, dishes which my father hand painted, silver platt...

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