Norlha: The Beginnings of an Extraordinary Enterprise

Norlha: The Beginnings of an Extraordinary Enterprise, is the incredible story of a small workshop's struggle to save an entire region and its traditional way of life. In the remote, rolling grasslands of the Tibetan Plateau's nomad country, Norlha set out to create an industry from a neglected local commodity, yak wool. Founded by Kim Yeshi in 2007 and now run by her daughter, Dechen, Norlha has trained local nomads to processes, weave and felt yak wool, a fiber that was previously used for insulation, stuffing and to make tents. Now that the Parisian fashion houses are placing orders for textiles, yak wool has seen its value rise considerably, improving the lives of nomads in the pasture and all of the 120 former nomads employed by Norlha. It's an amazing story of one woman's dream for a people, a fiber and a way of life.