Women learn Tibetan carpet weaving at a vocational training course offered by a project of Yunnan Agricultural University, funded by the United Nations China Gender Fund for Research and Advocacy. [Photo/China Daily]

A training project run by Yunnan Agricultural University and funded by the United Nations is using heritage to provide economic sustenance.

Dorlma, a Tibetan woman who learned weaving from her family as a teenager, is now helping her family even more, thanks to a United Nations-funded training project on producing Tibetan carpets run by Yunnan Agricultural University.

So, now, while her husband works as a day laborer, the main income of the family comes from her weaving Tibetan carpets and separately selling handmade blankets, clothes and home ornaments, something she used to do earlier.

Speaking about the training, her first professional course in Tibetan carpet weaving, Dorlma says: "I was very thrilled to see the teacher weave carpets at the course. And I immediately learned the different patterns the teacher demonstrated, and really hope to further improve my weaving skills."

Dorlma is one of the beneficiaries of a project funded by the UN China Gender Fund for Research and Advocacy, which offers courses to women in Dechen county in the Dechen Tibet autonomous prefecture in Yunnan province.

The project - run by the Institute of New Rural Development at Yunnan Agricultural University, which began in last November - targets Tibetan women in Yunnan, and is expected to run through June 2019.

One of the main aims of the project is to find ways to encourage women's participation in community activities, and to increase the income of the migrant families.