The King's passion for learning about far-flung cultures is the driving force behind the charity Turquoise Mountain, which this year is celebrating its 20th year.
Shoshana Stewart, who has been president of the charity since 2022 and was its chief executive from 2006, says that the King "injects a lot of energy" into its projects to revitalise traditional skills such as carpentry, weaving and jewellery-making that might otherwise be lost.
The charity is now holding an exhibition at the Garrison Chapel at Chelsea Barracks in London to mark two decades since Charles, then the Prince of Wales, co-founded it with Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan's president at the time. The exhibition will feature its artisans' finest pieces, including handblown glass from Palestine, lacquered bowls from Myanmar and jewellery from Afghanistan that has been showcased by the Duchess of Sussex.
"We were created because Hamid Karzai was visiting London, visiting the School of Traditional Arts, which His Majesty had set up," Shoshana tells us. "He was saying: 'Isn't this wonderful? I wish we had one of these in my country.' The Prince of Wales said: 'Shall we do something together?'
"So Turquoise Mountain [named after Firozkoh, a city in the Afghan highlands razed by Genghis Khan] was set up a few months later with the goal of preserving cultural heritage in the wake of huge amounts of conflict. The whole thing happened very rapidly, as I think it does tend to around His Majesty."
The first person to benefit from Charles's decision to found a school of traditional arts in Afghanistan was Abdul Hadi, a banana seller from Kabul. Abdul had been a carpenter for the late king of Afghanistan before war meant that his intricate wood-carving skills no longer had a market and he was forced to open a fruit stall.
"This guy was the great lattice woodworker of Afghanistan," Shoshana says. "Having worked for the king of Afghanistan, he was just selling bananas in the bazaar, and he had been for 15 years. This is what happens when there's a war. You have no markets, you have no students to whom you can pass on your skills.
"So we pulled Abdul Hadi out of retirement, and a group of other retired craft masters, and built, if you will, a baby sister school to the School of Traditional Arts, which is The Turquoise Mountain Institute for Afghan Arts and Architecture, which is still running today."
Shoshana has overseen the charity's expansion into Jordan, Myanmar, Palestine and Saudi Arabia. She says that the King directly inspired Turquoise Mountain's ethos. "This has very much come from the inspiration of the King: this sense that place matters, and the sense that our environment and the traditions of our buildings, of our crafts, of our practices and its connection to the planet matters, that this sense of harmony matters."
The charity, which has trained more than 11,500 artisans and restored more than 170 historic buildings, not only nurtures and champions cultural heritage but also makes it sustainable. "It is great to train the next generation, but if they can't sell what they make, it isn't going to work. The younger generation isn't going to take it up. They have to be able to feed their families."
Shoshana – whose husband, Rory, is a former Conservative Party leadership contender and co-hosts the podcast The Rest is Politics – is sitting in front of a carpet woven by Sima, a woman from Bamiyan in central Afghanistan who was taught to weave by her mother and her grandmother. Sima's work is on sale at Christopher Farr, a rug shop on the King's Road in Chelsea. The charity also has partnerships with Asprey, the Victoria & Albert Museum and The Connaught hotel in London and the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar.
Turquoise Mountain formed one of its most successful partnerships with the British designer Pippa Small, whose Turquoise Mountain collection was worn by the Duchess of Sussex at the British Fashion Awards in 2018.
"Pippa has come to Afghanistan twice a year for 17 years, and most of the other countries in which we work," Shoshana says. "She comes, she sits with the artisans, they draw things, they push stones around on the table, and then she just creates a collection and she buys. She has bought herself millions of dollars' worth of Afghan jewellery and brought it into the UK and American markets. But Pippa's gone another step – she's mentoring young designers."
The foundation also gives back to the community, providing primary healthcare to more than 250,000 Afghans at a clinic focused on mothers and children. The King continues to take a close interest in the charity, visiting Afghanistan in 2010 and meeting teachers and students in Jordan as well as visiting its exhibition at Leighton House in 2023.
"That physical presence – him visiting another country and us being able to be there and show him what we're doing there – is wonderful. People know how much he loves learning about other cultures – how much he seems to delight in hearing about and seeing and visiting the motifs and the language and different cultures of the world. His joy and respect in other cultures has come through, and I think we're created as a sort of celebration of that."
Craftsmanship and Community: 20 Years of Turquoise Mountain runs 12-22 February at the Garrison Chapel, Chelsea Barracks. Free entry.
