After learning of her uncle's death in Nepal years ago, Zhaxi traveled there with her son and daughter to find that her uncle had left her piles of Nepalese carpets.

They were in short supply on the international market, she was told. She also learned that Nepalese business people sold their carpets with the label "made in Tibet."

The gifts gave her an idea.

She returned to the Tibet Autonomous Region and began work to enter the Tibetan carpet business.

Using her training at the Beijing Foreign Trade Co. in the 1970s, and her 12 years of experience as the deputy general manager of Shannan Foreign Trade Bureau, Zhaxi worked to receive an 800,000 yuan (US$96,386) bank loan from the Economic and Trade Commission of the Tibet Autonomous Region.

That loan and her hard work gave birth to the Potala Carpet Co., Ltd, Tibet's first privately owned company located in Damba village at Zhaibung Monastery in Lhasa.

Traveling to trade fairs and using state-of-the-art imported machines and quality dyestuffs from Switzerland, her factory produced 400,000 square feet of carpets within three years.

Now at 58, she is the board chairwoman of her company which is valued at 20 million yuan (US$2.4 million), and includes a 6,000-square-metre factory.

Her exports total US$2-3 million each year and in 2000, her company was fifth highest of Tibet in terms of export value.

Joint venture

In 1994, she and John McKay, an American businessman, pooled their funds, with American backers providing 70 percent of the total investment, to establish the Tibet Plateau Sheep Wool Co Ltd, where Zhaxi is the vice-board chairwoman.

The joint venture's products include wool yarn, woolen drapes and woolen blankets which are sold to the United States and Italy.

Her company now has three branches, each armed with advanced equipment and quality-control systems. Skilled workers at her factories all have 15 years of work experience and products sell like hot cakes in Tianjin, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong, as well as foreign countries such as the United States, Canada, Japan, Italy, Germany and Switzerland.

In a weaving workshop, dozens of workers sit cross-legged behind machines, singing while working.

The machines and their wooden frames reach the ceiling and white yarns are spread over the floor while workers add colorful yarns with their nimble hands.

The yarn-combing workshop is complete with rows of combing machines and the factory's exhibition hall is connected to the neighboring inventory warehouse, where neat rows of carpets and tapestries hang on the wall.

Her carpets are attractive not just because she has skilled workers and advanced machines, but because she uses high quality Tibetan sheep wool, Zhaxi said.

"Tibetan sheep wool is soft and durable, and can withstand the cold," Zhaxi said.

"We use natural colors like white, milk, gray, grayish white, as well as light purple and dark purple. When dyed, the wool has a shining tone."

Learning from mom

Zhaxi's father was a native of Tingri County, Xigaze Prefecture. Before the peaceful liberation of Tibet in 1951, he served in the Tibetan army and was a company leader.

"My uncles had no children at all, and I was the only child in my family," Zhaxi said.

Her father died in 1952, and her mother processed tea and owned a rice business to eke out a living.

In business, Zhaxi said she always tries to follow her mother's hardworking example.

She recalls one moment while growing up in the 1950s.

"A strong wind blew (my mother's) socks outside. She had only one extra sock, but she had to go somewhere the next day," Zhaxi remembered.

Zhaxi searched for yarn and worked all night to weave a tube sock for her mother.

"When she saw it the next morning, my mother was wild with happiness," Zhaxi said.

"From then on, she told everyone she met, 'My daughter is unusual'."

Over time Zhaxi realized what her mother meant, she said.

"There is nothing in the world that cannot be done," Zhaxi said.

She went on to study Chinese at the Southwest Institute for Ethnic Minorities in Chengdu in 1956, and returned home in 1959 and had remained in Tibet until 1970 when she was sent to study in Beijing.

Expanding business

Today Zhaxi works to spread her expertise to help the community.

In 1993, Zhaxi gave 70,000 yuan (US$8,434) to the Gongbosho Township Carpet Factory in Shannan Prefecture's Nanggarze County to establish a joint venture. She is responsible for product sales.

Before long, the small factory, which was on the brink of bankruptcy, was reinvigorated. It went from 40 workers to 150, and the annual income of each worker rose from less than 1,000 yuan (US$120) to some 6,000 yuan (US$723). Most of the workers have been able to build their own two-storey houses.

In 1996, Zhaxi invested in a farm in Nyingchi for livestock breeding, cultivation of medicinal herbs, and the raising of chickens and cows. The farm provides local farmers with free stud animals and helps them dig irrigation canals and build small hydraulic power stations in the mountainous area.

While the farm is not making money, Zhaxi continues to carry on, and encourages farm workers to develop a kind of liquor using materials such as snow water, wild pine down and quality qingke barley, which is contamination-free.

Over the years, Zhaxi has also invested in building bridges spanning the Nyang River, putting up high voltage power lines, and buying bulldozers and harvesters for the local people.

Zhaxi plans to push her business even further. The company already has a sales agent in the United States, and is computerizing their sales network.

"I plan to create a website for my company to facilitate our business," she said, bringing Tibetan commerce to the World Wide Web.

(China Daily May 21, 2002)