After the Chines invasion of Tibet in the year 1959, His Holiness the Dalai Lama fled to India followed by some 80,000 of his Tibetan people who sought asylum in India, Bhutan and Nepal. The Government of Nepal was very kind enough to provide shelter for rehabilitation of the Tibetans in different parts of Nepal. For those who could reach Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, the Govt. of Nepal has so
kindly allotted the present land area for the rehabilitation of the Tibetan refugees. At the beginning stage the refugees had to depend their livelihood on the generous assistance from international relief program for sometime. Among the Tibetan refugees there were a few skilled carpet weavers who used to weave carpets in Tibet prior to their arrival in Nepal in 1959. Having known the availability of such skilled weavers, the International committee for Red Cross and Swiss Association for Technical Assistance (SATA) now called Swiss Development Corporation (SDC) jointly established the "Jawalakhel Handicraft Center" in 1960 with the kind cooperation of the Govt. of Nepal in order to provide employment for their living in the years to come. The Jawalakhel Handicraft Center is the first ever carpet factory in Nepal. This center provides employment opportunities to more than 300 Tibetans from the community and is engaged in different processes of producing high quality carpets. All the proceeds earned by this center goes directly of the welfare of the Tibetan Community in Jawalakhel, Nepal.
