Alain Rouveure is a strong advocate for Fair Trade rather than Aid and is a member of RUGMARK, a world organisation monitoring child labour and working conditions in rug production.

By dealing personally and fairly with individual craftsmen / women Alain manages to cut out the middlemen.

The result is a product of far superior quality than from high street retailers at an often lower price for the consumer.

For over 25 years Alain has closely monitored the production of hand knotted so-called "Tibetan" rugs destined for sale in the west. The tourist demand creates a fickle mass market in which hybrid "chinesey" or "persiany" designs, or simply commercial decorative patterns, replace many traditional motifs.

Since 1979 Alain Rouveure has researched and documented over 450 ancient rug designs from Tibet. Each has a story inspired by nature, folklore, the mystical symbols of Tibetan Buddhism. Frequently bold, strong, vibrant and cheerful, sometimes touching, they have evolved over the centuries through the efforts of resilient and lively people - inhabitants of the vast moon-like landscape that is Tibet.

All the Tibetan rugs specially commissioned and sold under Alain Rouveure's label are hand-knotted in Tibetan wool exclusively. This superior sheep's wool has been spun by hand and traditionally dyed following ancient recipes using only plants and minerals.