The Sunrise Pashmina Adventure

(a love story)

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.

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.

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.

Shopping at Sunrise

• Within each category of product (e.g. 70/30, 100% basic, 100% twill, 100% diamond weave, modal) we sell only the best quality, to the best of our knowledge -- and we are as well informed as anyone selling Nepal pashmina. Lower quality is available, but our producer understands that we want only the best, and that we pay whatever he feels is a reasonable price.
• Shipping is $14.50 per order, no matter where the order is going. Within the USA, we use Priority Mail, which is supposed to take 2 or 3 days. Orders to other nations are sent by First Class Mail, which can take a week or more.
• Why charge so much for domestic orders, where postage may be only $8 or so? We feel that there is no reason to charge more for shipping to other countries, when we are paying for shipment from Nepal. The real transportation cost would include courier shipment to us in Ithaca as well as postage to the end-user. With that calculation, all shipping costs are more than $14.50. In fact, we would like to offer free shipping, but then we would be discouraging people from purchasing more than one piece at a time.
• We want you to be head-over-heels-bonkers in love with your shawl. If you're not, please return it. We'll cover postage -- IF YOU CONTACT US FIRST. We don't want people to pay for FedEx or something outlandish.
• If you don't find what you want, let us know. We'll either get Pranab to make us some, or we'll try to get it from another producer.
• When you place an order, it may seem like your credit card has been charged. Actually, we don't process payment until we have contacted you and verified that we have what you want. If there is a pertinent discount, we will apply it, without being asked.
• Our prices are non-negotiable. But if you want to go into business, or buy a lot of pieces, we'll put you in contact with Pranab, and he'll give you the same prices he gives us. But... he may not be so willing to take returns. Sending pashmina to Nepal is tricky.

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.