Read the UPDATED FEBRUARY Newsletter HERE

See 8 NEW virtual programs, + New exhibitions,

articles and video recordings!

*If you have already registered for this VIRTUAL program,

thank you! It is not necessary to register again.*

VIRTUAL VIA ZOOM

Saturday, February 7, 2026

10 am PT / 1 pm ET / 6 pm GMT - London

NOMAD FESTIVALS

of the EASTERN GRASSLANDS OF TIBET:

Their Textiles, Costumes & Horse Trappings

with

Cheri Hunter

Traveler, Photographer, Writer,Textile Collector,

and Program Chairman, TMA/SC

Pacific Palisades, California

Kham and Amdo are remote, isolated and culturally Tibetan provinces in China. Their landscapes consist of snowy peaks and rolling grasslands on the eastern Tibetan Plateau, where nomadic peoples have maintained grazing cultures with sheep and yaks for centuries. Just as at county fairs and rodeos in the American West, Tibetan nomads love to come together for spectacular annual festivals, featuring dance, costume contests, and wild competitions of horsemanship. Tibetan Buddhist culture, which is often mixed with the local animistic shaman practices, also presents opportunities for seasonal celebrations. 

Cheri Hunter, longtime photographer and traveler, traversed the grasslands in 2006, photographing the colorful festivals and rituals, several of which have since disappeared. This program will emphasize both the costumes, jewelry and pile trappings in use throughout the Eastern Grasslands, as well as in monastery and shaman rituals, and horse competitions, where all of the participants, including the horses, are dressed in their finest.

A native and resident of Southern California, and graduate of UCLA in Art and Cinema, Cheri Hunter is a former film editor. Since retiring, her life has focused on world travel, and on her special interests in photography, art, and writing. She collects hand-made ethnographic textiles and Oriental carpets of the world, and loves learning about their cultural and historical contexts, concentrating mostly on Asia. She has written and illustrated multiple articles, mostly photo spreads, for HALI Magazine, including on this visit to Tibet. 

Cheri is a founding member of TMA/SC. For the past thirty years, she has been the off-and-on again volunteer President of Textile Museum Associates of Southern California, and since 1992, its Program Chairman. During this time, she has created nearly 350 programs for TMA/SC, a local non-profit organization that presents monthly programs. While originally only In-Person programs were offered, with speakers flown in from around North America and the world, since 2020 the programs are now mostly presented virtually via Zoom.

Be sure to log-in a few minutes early! Once the webinar reaches

capacity, you will be directed by Zoom via a link to watch the

program Live-streaming on Youtube, in which there will be full access

to the live program, but no access to the Chat or Q&A features.

*This program is longer than 1 hour,

+ 30 minutes of Q&A (as usual)*

If you do not receive a Registration Confirmation email within a few minutes of registering, please check your Spam folder (or in Gmail, your Promotions folder.) Also, many registrants make typos in their email registrations, and the confirmations go to a phantom email address. Please try re-registering. Sorry, we cannot assist you on program day.

* To find your TIME ZONE, go to dateful.com/time-zone-converter.

Be sure to add the date.

TMA/SC UPCOMING PROGRAM

Reweaving Ancient Memory:

Community Fashion in Oaxacan Mexico 

with

Eric Mindling

Fine art documentary photographer, author and entrepreneur,

Santa Fe, New Mexico

VIRTUAL VIA ZOOM

Saturday, March 14, 2026

10 am PT / 1 pm ET / 6 pm GMT - London

This talk is a journey into the world of traditional Oaxaca and the living world of indigenous community fashion. Eric Mindling spent two years photographing the ancestral dressways of the splendidly diverse villages of this Mexican state. During this journey he searched for an understanding of the different meanings this clothing carried, what it communicated, how it spoke. While much of the symbolic meaning woven into traditional clothing has been lost, the cloth still whispers. In this visually stunning talk Eric shares stories from a land steeped in ancient knowledge. 

Registration will be available in mid-February.

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