Dharamsala, Oct 25 (IANS): Now, you can buy Tibetan handicrafts and artefacts online. Dolma Gyari, minister in the Tibetan administration-in-exile, Friday launched an online retail shop for handicrafts and artefacts, an official here said.

The online shop, TIBETeSHOP.com, is an initiative of the Federation of Tibetan Co-operatives in India (FTCI) Ltd.

"Tibetan carpet and handicraft businesses used to flourish once, but profits have diminished now, leading to the closure of many of these industries," said Gyari, who looks after the home portfolio in the administration.

"I believe it happened because we could not keep in step with changes in time. Therefore, through such modern and up-to-date initiatives, I hope we can reduce the unemployment rate in our community by creating a bigger market for our artefacts," she said.

The eShop currently has more than 200 different products available online, and more will be added soon, an official said.

The online purchases, he said, could be made from 15 countries including the US, Britain, France, Japan, Australia and China.

The FTCI is a member of the Fair Trade India Forum. FTCI has more than 24,000 members all over India and 15 Tibetan co-operatives under its wing.

With the establishment of Tibetan settlements in the late 1950s and early 1960s, cooperative societies were simultaneously started in their respective settlements.

The co-operative societies were later combined to bring all the societies under one apex body. With support from the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), the federal body of Tibetan cooperative societies was legally registered in 2005 under the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act of 2002 as FTCI.

The Tibetan administration-in-exile is based in this north Indian hill town. Tibetan religious leader the Dalai Lama has lived in India since fleeing his homeland in 1959.