Born in Aba, where Tibetan and Qiang cultures meet.
From this highland landscape comes a way of seeing — shaped by movement, resilience, beauty and cultural memory.
T FOR TIBET.
CHIRU FOR THE TIBETAN ANTELOPE.
The name carries its origin openly — T for Tibet, chiru for the antelope that crosses the plateau.
The antelope is a symbolic source of inspiration, not a decorative motif. Nothing in the work depicts the animal. What it stands for — endurance, freedom, life at altitude — is translated instead.
TCHIRU does not recreate traditional forms. It carries meaningful cultural roots into contemporary jewellery design.
We are not here to recreate the past.
What I carry forward is not a form, but a way of seeing.
Tibet → Translation → Time
Tibet is the root. Translation is the method — carrying meaning across into contemporary form. Time is the test: what remains true as the years pass.
We believe jewellery should evolve with the wearer — in form, material and expression — while carrying something more lasting: meaning.
What endures is meaning.
VERA LI · དབྱངས་ཅན།
I created TCHIRU from a simple belief: heritage should not be preserved only in the past. It can live in the present, in new forms, and in the way we choose to see the world.
I come from Aba, where Tibetan and Qiang cultures meet. Growing up close to this landscape and its cultural memory shaped the way I see beauty — not as something fixed, but as something that can evolve without losing where it came from.
TCHIRU is my way of carrying that heritage forward.
I do not want to reproduce traditional jewellery. I want to understand what lies beneath it — the spirit, the rhythm, the strength, the beauty — and give those ideas a new form.
“What I carry forward is not a form, but a way of seeing.”
— VERA LI
Founder & Creative Director, TCHIRU