His first trial run of 1,500 books, featuring a picture of a Tibetan language keyboard and a motto in both Chinese and Tibetan, proved immensely popular. He completely sold out within 48 hours after visiting just two schools in the cities of Lhasa and Lhokha, making 12,000 yuan in the process.

 

"I went to a vocational school in Lhokha city to advertise my notebook. It was so popular that I only had to wait at the school entrance. Monitors from different classes helped collect money for me and then came to take the notebooks," he said.

 

After selling another 1,500 notebooks of a different design, Ngawang Dondrum decided to make one that would be speci?cally used for practicing Tibetan calligraphy. He consulted two lamas, both experts in the art, and ?nished designing it in February.

 

The new book features pictures of the holy Mount Kangrinboqe, also known as Mount Kailash, and Lake Manasarovar on its cover, as well as a portrayal of Thonmi Sambhota — traditionally regarded as the inventor of Tibetan script — and a damburi, or traditional guitar thought to originate in Tibet's Ngari prefecture.

 

Ngawang Dondrum said he is looking to add a machine-readable code to the book as well, which customers will be able to scan for tips on writing Tibetan calligraphy.

 

His company, also called Damburi, was registered in June and has been offered free office space in an innovation and entrepreneurship base in Duishigagyi village of Lhasa's Chushul county thanks to the local government's preferential policies for innovation and entrepreneurship.

 

"Damburi are still used to this day. I wanted to remind people to protect such cultural heritage with the name," he said, adding that he is now also applying for a startup fund of up to 50,000 yuan from the government.

 

"I am collecting stories from senior Tibetans and plan to cooperate with the tourism and culture authorities to print notebooks featuring the local culture of Tibet."