A month after the National Design and Art Competition ended, the Royal Textile Academy disqualified the first prize winner in the Weaving Gho category and revoked the cash prize. The decision came after the real weaver filed a complaint claiming that she was the one who created the winning piece.
Last month, designer Thinley Pemo and weaver Jangchubmo were awarded the first prize of Nu 120,000 in the Weaving Gho category.
However, after Namgay Wangmo filed a complaint claiming that she was the real weaver earlier this month, the Royal Textile Academy formed an internal committee to investigate the matter.
Namgay said she only learned about the mistake after her cousins saw a post on social media.
During the investigation, designer Thinley Pemo admitted she had mistakenly listed Jangchubmo as the weaver, saying she got confused while handling multiple submissions.
RTA’s Director emphasised the importance of the originality declaration form, which all participants must sign to confirm their work is genuine.
“When the artisans submit their pieces to the Royal Textile Academy, they have to declare that it’s their original work, whereby we have a declaration of originality form, which our people also try to explain to them, and accordingly, they sign on that paper. As per the declaration form, they have to understand that if they provide any false information, they will be barred from future competitions and cash prizes and awards will be forfeited by them,” said Ugyen Tenzin, Director, Royal Textile Academy.
According to the competition rules, besides revoking the cash prize and certificates, both Thinley Pemo and Jangchubmo will be barred from future competitions for the next three years.
Meanwhile, Namgay Wangmo was compensated with Nu 30,000.
To prevent similar issues, the RTA plans to carry out stricter verification of submitted products and urge artisans to provide accurate information.
“In the future, when you submit your products to the RTA, we urge you to provide the correct information. Further from the RTA side, we have been aggressively doing social media campaigns mainly to ensure that the deserving ones win the competition and get recognised,” added RTA’s director.
A similar incident happened in 2018 in the Kira category, and similar actions were taken against them.
Kinley Bidha
Edited by Sonam Pem
