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The Sunrise Pashmina Adventure

(a love story)

Seth and Empar at Syangboche, with Everest, Lhotse, Nuptse, and Ama Dablam in the background

Seth and Empar at Syangboche, with Everest, Lhotse, Nuptse, and Ama Dablam in the background. More photos!

70% pashmina/30% silk medium-size pashmina shawl with Zebra print Horton wants to go to the post

Hi! Sunrise Pashmina is a family business run by Empar and Seth Sicroff, in collaboration with our producer Pranab Manandhar and his family. We love Nepal and we love pashmina, and we think you should, too. That's our mission.

Empar does the product selection and modeling. Seth handles marketing, including this Web site; we both handle customer service, but Seth is usually the one who answers emails and telephone, as Empar is also manager of Red Feet Wine Market & Spirit Provisions, the best wine store in upstate New York. Seth tries to stay out of photos. The one at right was taken at a presentation of the Sir Edmund Hillary Mountain Legacy Medal, which Empar and Seth also administer.

Established in 1999

Sunrise Pashmina originated as a project intended to build capacity in the traditional gateway zone for budget tourism in Nepal. We helped Tsering Choekyap, a Tibetan refugee, switch from trekking gear to pashmina sales. This international export enterprise was intended to serve as a model and collaborator for other local artisans, and in some respects it was successful. But it was a transitional arrangement, and these days Sunrise Pashmina is a conventional commercial enterprise.

You can trust us!

We used to post Fan Mail on a separate page of this web site. Recently we set up an account on Trustpilot, and we have a few reviews there, which we hope you will read... and eventually add to.

Tsering at his Sunrise Trekking shop in Freak Street, Kathmandu Tsering Choekyap converts his Sunrise Trekking shop to a pashmina business
Horton wants to go to the post office Pranab's store in Thamel, Kathmandu

Above: Conversion from trekking to pashmina; Empar prepares to take a Gesar blanket to the post office; Pranab's store in Thamel, Kathmandu

Earth First!

Sunrise Pashmina is a global project. Freedom, happiness, and prosperity are not local affects: to the extent that they are not available anywhere in the world, our own are necessarily diminished, even if we are unaware of the connections.

Citizen Empar

Empar gets her US citizenship

We at Sunrise would like to express our gratitude and our welcome to all the immigrants who contribute to America and help America make good on its promise to the world.

Find your adventure

More specifically, we believe in the value of travel and adventure. The world would be a safer, and happier place if more people did a bit of globe-trotting. Sunrise Pashmina grew out of our efforts to promote backpacking tourism in Nepal, which is one of the last best places in the world, but needs commitment and stewardship from guests as well as host communities. If you happen to be going there, please contact us for suggestions. We'll even tell you where to get the same shawls we sell, at local prices. If you go to Himalaya Silk and Pashmina in Thamel, we'll see that Pranab offers you the same prices we pay.

Our family

Empar and Seth have two daughters (Liana, 16, and Gabriela, 14), two Irish Wolfhounds (Horton and Chewbacca), a cat (Bella), a bearded dragon (Igor), a hedgehog (Dixie), a Plecostomus (Morticia), and a Cichlid (the little yellow thing). Liana is a dancer and a vegan. She wants to study zoology, and we're trying to get her to go to Cornell. Gabriela is a gymnast and wants to study psychology. At 14, she is 5'8" and very muscular, but we're hoping she'll get a little bigger so she can handle the dogs, who total about 340 pounds, while we galavant around the world collecting marathon and half-marathon finisher medals.

Empar is from Alaquas, in Valencia province, Spain, and she has an engineering degree from Valencia Polytechnic. Seth has an MA in geography (specializing in Himalayan tourism) from the University of California at Davis, as well as a PhD in Medieval Studies and MA in Comparative Literature from Harvard, and a BA in English from Cornell.

In the context of Nepal and remote mountainous generations in general, we are advocates of backpacker tourism, which tends to trickle-drip money directly into the hands of the local people, while encouraging community collaboration to protect both the natural environment and the cultural assets on which their happiness and their livelihood depend. Of course, backpacker tourism must be part of a full array of carefully managed tourism formats, and the entire sector depends on strong relationships between individuals, agencies, and commercial enterprises around the world.

Empar and Seth are founding directors of Mountain Legacy, which administers the Sir Edmund Hillary Mountain Legacy Medal, personally authorized by Sir Edmund Hillary in 2002; the international prize recognizes remarkable contributions in cultural and natural conservation in mountainous regions. We serve as consultants for the Nepal Tourism Board and the Nepal Mountaineering Association. We are also working on a Sister Cities link between Ithaca NY and Pokhara, Nepal.

Sir Edmund Hillary and the medal we named after him, the Sir Edmund Hillary Mountain Legacy Medal

Shopping at Sunrise

Comment posted by WY on Trustpilot.com:

Quality purchase from Sunrise Pashmina Purchased from Sunrise Pashmina, Seth was knowledgeable in her products and recommendations. Products are of high quality too! Highly recommend them.

(Thanks, Wilma!)

Read more reviews.

Bottom line

We realize that buying a pashmina shawl is an expensive and complicated purchase. Colors, size, fabric blend, embroidery, yada-yada-yada... Let's talk about it. No voice-mail menus. No hard sell. If we don't have what you want, or can't get it to you in time, we'll tell you right off.

English a problem? Empar is a native speaken of Spanish and Catalan, and essentially native in English as well. Seth can manage communication in Spanish and French, and had to pass proficiency exams in several other languages back in grad school. Call us any time at (607) 256-0102, or us email at info@sunrise-pashmina.com.

Contact Us

Email Seth at seth@sunrise-pashmina.com
Or call us at (607) 256-0102. Night or day.
If we can't answer immediately, we'll get back to you. Soon.

Sunrise Pashmina
511 W. Green St.
Ithaca, NY 14850 USA

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