Pema Tobgye is Party head of Tangbumba village, Orong town in Nyingchi city, Southwest China's Tibet autonomous region. He holds a traditional Tibetan wooden bowl, on Aug 20, 2020. [Photo by Zhang Yifan/For chinadaily.com.cn]

Finally he thought of the Gyatsa county in Lhokha city, which is very close to Nang county, where Tangbumba village is located. It has a long history of making wooden bowls. So he thought they too could make wooden bowls. So Pema Tobgye immediately went to Lhokha city to explore the "bowl business".

In March 2016, Pema Tobgye raised more than 300,000 yuan ($43,420) through bank loans and applying for poverty alleviation funds from the government, and set up the Tibetan Wooden Bowl Cooperative.

"The masters who taught us how to make the bowls were all hired from Lhokha city, and they all have more than 20 years' experience," he said.

At present, the cooperative covers an area of 240 square meters, with a usable floor area of 200 square meters. It has nine workers and two workshops (a painting workshop and bowl-processing workshop), mainly engaging in the production and sales of Tibetan wooden bowls and Tibetan tea sets.