Minority Selling Power

Would a product from the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) smell so sweet by any other name?

This is a question trawling through my mind right now, due to the "packing gifts for relatives syndrome" induced into labour after 13 months of foreign living.

When I was in Lhasa purchasing jewelry from around the hallowed Barkhor circuit (which has been the home of trinket, horse tackle, yak butter and Buddhist iconography sellers for as long as there have been pilgrims making their way for a once in a lifetime trip of mega karma creating outcomes) I was very aware that I was purchasing might not come from Lhasa. In fact the most likely places are: Nepal, Rajasthan in India and from factories dotted around eastern China. Yet I still bought. The beauty of being able to say "this is from Lhasa with love" was appealing, along with the actual jewelry itself.

On my trip I also deliberately went to places which are in part owned and wholly managed by ethnic Tibetans and where the goods are entirely made by ethnic Tibetans to find somethings to put in my home to last long enough for my flesh's successors to see. I was deliberately seeking out items made in Tibet by Tibetans, where I could be supporting traditional handicrafts.

Thinking about it now though, would it be so wrong if the Han living in the TAR had made these products? Would I feel as satisfied? Answers I don't yet have, but which I suspect Western people who have never even travelled that far into Western China would deign to respond with "oh could you?"

Tibet has a brand name, which is ironic, because it is one of the smallest provinces in the PRC (by populace). If I think about provinces like Shaanxi, Hebei or Heilongjiang, I wouldn't consider them to have a brand name famous for outsiders. But then they don't have people as exotic as Tibetans - they just have ordinary humans.

When you buy to buy for a brand's sake, whether it's a car, wedding dress or shoes, it's normally because of the status that brand brings and the emotional pull it has on you and on those around you when you're in possession of that item. Buying "Tibetan" has that same appeal, partly because it's higher and further away than most places, the spirituality associated with the location and it's history. In a way that's one of the reasons why I travelled there.

Maybe the reason I chose to go out of my way and to then purchase out of my way, is because Tibet is seen as such a mysterious place (it is in parts, but it's also decidely human in most ways too). By preserving traditions which aren't my own I also feel like it's my small way to embrace and celebrate the diversity of Tibet both when I am there and when people might ask: where do these come from and what is their story?

Minority produce is sexy - because it is in the minority...if only the same could be said for policies directed towards preserving the traditions and cultures of minorities themselves.