AMARAVATHI: The sale of `Dupatta' has zoomed during the last few days, thanks to the latest craze among the Tibetans to try the Indian dress material. The Tibetans, perhaps, were identifying the dupatta with their custom of giving `Hada', a long silk scarf as token of esteem and good luck to their friends.

Handloom traders who set up their stalls at Amaravathi in Guntur district during the Kalachakra ceremony have a new-found hope. Sales from their stalls were bad during the last few days. This love of the Tibetans has kindled their hopes.

Main items

There are 31 stalls set up by the handloom cooperatives and the main items on sale were bed sheets, pillow covers, tablemats and women's dress materials. However, many Tibetans were asking for dupattas, which come along with the dress material.

"We were initially reluctant to sell the item. But the number of people asking for them has made us change our decision," said a beaming Ramana Chary, a shopkeeper who sold 25 dupattas to a single customer on Thursday afternoon.

At the other stalls, vendors were dismayed on the low turnout of sales. Some traders blamed the location of the stalls in a remote place, away from the main preaching site as the cause of the low sales. Katuri Venkateshwara Rao, who set up the `Surya Silpasala' selling sculptures related to Buddhism, blames the hype created by the media as well as the remote location of the stalls as the cause.

There are stalls most of which are set up by DWACRA groups and are selling different items like clothes, handlooms, fancy and decorative items. Stalls selling paintings, handicrafts, books and ice-cream are also doing moderate business. One stall attracted huge crowds throughout the day as they were offering the second product free of cost for every purchase of their consumer goods.

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