Jigmi Wangdi 

The Royal Textile Academy in Thimphu launched a series of survey reports on the textile industry of Bhutan. One of the studies was on the purchase and consumption of national textiles.

The study also found that the respondents purchased less than five gho and kira pieces 24 months prior to the survey across all three looms. The study shows that machine-woven gho and kira are about 85 percent likely to be purchased in the future compared to a 70 percent on both back-strap and meche looms.

The objective of the survey was to study the consumption trends, consumer opinions on quality and cost of textiles woven on back-strap, meche, and machine looms.




The study found that 75 percent of the respondents considered gho and kira woven on back-strap loom excellent (35 percent) and above average (40 percent) in terms of quality. However, over 75 percent of the respondents considered gho and kira woven on back-strap loom available in the market to be expensive; over 20 percent considered reasonable.

Similarly, over 50 percent of the respondents considered gho and kira woven on meche loom to be excellent (15 percent) and above average (40 percent) in quality. About 55 percent of the respondents considered gho and kira woven on meche loom available in the market to be very expensive or expensive while around 40 percent of the respondents considered it reasonable.




Over 25 percent of the respondents considered gho and kira woven on machine loom to be excellent (5 percent) or above average (20 percent), while 65 percent of the respondents considered same textile available in the market average in quality.

Sixty-five percent of the respondents considered the cost of machine-woven gho and kira available in the market to be reasonable; 20 percent of the respondents found it cheap, and 15 percent of the respondents said it was expensive.

In order to increase the demand for back-strap and meche looms, the study recommends a development in the Bhutanese textile industry. According to the survey, a way to improve the sector is by producing ‘aspirational products’, which could be compared to high-end brands from foreign countries.




The survey also points towards the importance of increasing the value of hand-woven textiles rather than suppressing demand for machine-woven textiles.

The survey had a total of 4,000 respondents out of which 2,745 were female and 1,255 male.

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