Ethnic Tibetans and the most treasured jewelry and costumes in Asia (photos!)

Here are some astonishing pictures from Tibet of the Khampa minority people, in their treasured ceremonial costumes and jewelry, which are fully worn in public only twice a year, and on wedding days.

These costumes and jewelry can be worth millions of dollars (yes, US dollars) and are built upon and handed down for centuries from generation to generation within the Khampa familes, and make up most of the life savings of the family. Being traditionally nomadic people that have to move every few months because of the snowy seasons in the Himalayas, Khampas have always needed to store their wealth in portable form. So rather than having their wealth in the form of estates or houses or land or stored in the bank, the Khampas have for millenia invested their wealth into easily transportable forms of art, precious fabrics, and particularly into jewelry made out of materials appropriate to their wealth.

to the Khampa people these ornaments have the utmost sentimental value and significance, because they are the physical remnants of generations of their ancestors hard work or success. what these people are wearing is not just their life savings, but also their family history and treasure. this culture has been around for millenia - archeological finds from the 1st century AD in the khampa area unearthed ornaments that are essentially the same in design and materials as today's are.

jewelry and brightly coloured costumes are very popular in Tibet anyway, but these special costumes of the Khampas feature ornamentation on an entire other level. On top of costumes of fine silks and furs, splendid jewelry is worn head to toe. in fact, the Khampa culture is maybe the most astonishing show of bejewelling in the world, jewelry of every conceivable type is worn in over conceivable place, the effect looking like gowns of elaborate priceless pendants, and large bright gemstone headpieces that flow over the braided hair and backs of the wearers. Nomatter who you are in Khampa society, it goes without saying that you buy jewelry with your money, because that it the most appropriate and traditional store for you money. Jewelry shows your social status and to preserve your wealth for your offspring. If you are a rich Khampa, to spend 100,000 dollars of your money on another huge jeweled amulet is an obvious decision that doesn't even bear thinking twice about.

Khampas compete to have the most eye-catching and bold adornment, whilst also being beautiful and meaningful - many ornaments have special religious meaning, as well as being the objects which store the family history, wealth, and show the family status.

When reading the descriptions of the value of these items, it will sometimes be shocking just how much they are worth, especially in the context of Tibetan society. Some of these people are extremely rich by not only Tibetan standards, but western also. The ostentatious displaying of such extreme abundant wealth in a poor country perhaps may seem too much, however it's worth remembering that this is the ancient culture of these people, the importance of jewelry is because they are a nomadic society; and also its worth remember that in our country too there is a vast gap between the rich and the poor, it is however not shown this directly.

 

There is an unbelievable amount of near-24 carat-pure gold being worn by the ladies in the above photo. This amount of raw gold alone - which make up the 20 or so dinner plate sized gold amulets being worn in the photo a - is worth about a million dollars. The workmanship and antiqueness of the items multiplies that value. So below the waist, this young lady wears millions of US dollars worth of treasure in the form of huge pure golden ornaments.

The photos below also show incredible collections of golden treasures ornamenting the lower half of a single signle ladies.





the Khampa girl in the picture above is really bedecked with incredible wealth, worth about ten million dollars. the hefty rings on her fingers are worth on average 20 thousand dollars each - remembering that the average wage in Tibet is 500 dollars a year, it'd cost the average Tibetan 40 years salary just to buy one. the red beads in her necklaces are antique coral, single beads be worth tens, hundreds or thousands of dollars depending on their size and quality, but it is the black and white beads, which are antique dZi beads which are the most valuable treasure in the necklaces. single antique beads can be worth up to 50,000 dollars each, and the necklaces in this picture are filled with such high quality antiques.

 

Below are more photos of a similar Sichuan Khampa style with amber headdress, and a collection of jewelry worth millions, in the form of dzi and coral necklaces, and many huge silver and gold amulets and hanging from the waist of this lady

 

So the more jewelry you have. You belong to a richer family.. Cause it dictates there status of living

 

That's absolutely incredible, and so beautiful.

 

Bling bling

 

beautiful jewellery and beautiful people.

 

I wanted to bump this thread. What beautiful beaded accessories and look at that tiger pelt clothing, wow! That's amazingly beautiful, and baller status!

 

very interesting. thanks for bumping OT

 

That's some serious Bling! Gorgeous!

 

Nice workmanship, but am I the only one who thinks it's quite garish, when piled on like that?

Also, where do you get the stats on the value? I would expect much of that gold is quite thin, or gold leaf on something like copper..... Worth a lot, doubtless, solid chucks of gold, highly doubtful, they wouldn't even be able to stand up.

 

This is true that the more jewelry and more richer family. It dictates there status of living. These costumes and jeweleries are running from generation to generation for centuries.

 

Nice Heirlooms

 

I love to visit this site and like it so much.

 

That's so beutiful so colorful and like exciting. I feel like it's not everyday I see something new thank you for this

 

Wow! Totally amazing clothes and jewelry:sunny:

 

The jewels represent the wealth of generations of the girl's families. I've spent 40+ years studying, apprasing, and trading in jewelery of this type and I'm blown away!