Ang Dolma Sherpa: Protectors All Around Us

As a child growing up in Nepal, Ang Dolma Sherpa questioned her mother’s frugality. As it turns out, her mother’s reluctance to buy things came from her training as a Peace Corps worker in Nepal and her knowledge of what was biodegradable and what would sit in landfills and riverways for a long time. Ang Dolma’s father ran the family’s trekking company and had great reverence for his homeland. 

Like many Buddhist families, the Sherpas accumulated more khatas at home than they knew what to do with. These traditional ceremonial scarves had a silky feel but were made of nylon and other petroleum-based products, as were the colorful prayer flags that clogged rivers, streams, and mountain paths in the Himalayas. Even though Ang Dolma knew it was a problem, she did not really think about it until her father’s death and cremation ceremony, when the burned khatas spread black plumes of smoke that made it difficult to breathe. “I had a firsthand experience of how they were being discarded and burned while emitting toxic fumes.” 

Ang Dolma and her mother talked about how, in the past, khatas were made from cotton. They were non-toxic and their fibers broke down naturally. In 2013, mother and daughter set out to make environmentally friendly khatas by removing the polyester and any other toxic fibers. Six years later, their business began to catch on. 

During the pandemic she hired her didis, women who make the prayer flags in their homes with sewing machines. Sixteen women are now employed. They use raw cotton for the prayer flags, eco inks, and a bamboo and cotton blend for the khatas. And because the didis don’t need to travel to work and don’t use heavy machinery, “Our carbon footprint is less.” 

“Even though biodegradable khatas and prayer flags started as providing an alternative to synthetic cultural products,” Ang Dolma says, “over the years it has evolved into the initiative Biodegradable Blessings, where we work with community members, monasteries, and like-minded people, raising awareness to bring back the heart of khata offerings and hoisting prayer flags in a mindful and sustainable way.” 

“For me, this is also a very simple way of practicing Buddhism,” Ang Dolma adds. 

“Growing up with both parents who worked outside the home, we were not the typical Buddhist family who attended gompas (temple) and took teachings. And the simple thing my father taught me has become a very solid principle in my life: that if you just care and are mindful of your actions, you don’t have to go to temple as much. I truly believe in that. The Buddhist teachings all come down to not harming one another.”