A set of traditional Tibetan costumes, together worth more than 10 million yuan, arrived in Beijing on October 23. They are scheduled to be shown at the 2007 Beijing Dahongmen International Fashion Festival which opens on October 25. The costumes come from Kangding, the capital city of Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan Province.

A girl and a boy from Dege County of Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture also came to show in these costumes.

The girl and boy traveled for two days from their hometown, arriving at Kangding on October 21. According to Dangqiu, the girl, the costume, covered with heavy adornments, weighed more than 25 kilograms.

“They are the most ceremonious costumes for Tibetan people. This set of female costumes contains three belts and three necklaces with coral and precious stones on them,” said Dangqiu. And she also explained that the Tibetans feel these adornments signify treasure and good luck. The more adornments a Tibetan wears the richer he or she could be and the luckier he or she may be.

More than half an hour was needed for Dangqiu to put on her costume and all of those adornments.

These costumes are completely handmade. All the necklaces and belts have been passed down for generations during several hundred years. Dangqiu said that a mere nine precious stones on one of these necklaces had been appraised at more than 2 million yuan (about US$266,000).

To make sure that the costumes arrived in Beijing safely, the festival committee hired two military police to safeguard them.

(China.org.cn by Chen Lin October 24, 2007)