Lokta paper, also known as Nepali kagaj or Nepali paper, is a wildcrafted, handmade artisan paper indigenous to Nepal. It is made from the bark of two of the species of the shrub Daphne. The paper was used historically in Nepal for religious scriptures and government documents. In modern day, the paper is used to make notebooks, religious scriptures, arts, painting canvas and for some of the government documents.
Nepalese handmade lokta paper is made from the fibrous inner bark (phloem) of two species of mid- to high-elevation evergreen shrubs belonging to the Thymelaeaceae family: Daphne bholua and Daphne papyracea . Like the paper made from them, both bushes are also vernacularly called "lokta". [1]
Lokta bushes proliferate in open clusters or colonies on the southern slopes of Nepal's Himalayan forests between 1,600 and 4,000 m (c.5,250–13,000 ft). [2]
Historically the handcrafting of lokta paper occurred in the rural areas of Nepal, most notably in the Baglung District. Today raw lokta paper is produced in more than 22 districts in Nepal, but finished lokta paper products are produced only in Kathmandu Valley and Janakpur. [3]
Lokta paper's durability and resistance to tearing, humidity, insects and mildew have traditionally made lokta paper the preferred choice for the recording of official government records (see photo on right) and sacred religious texts. [2]
The earliest surviving lokta paper document appears in Nepal's National Archives in Kathmandu in the form of the sacred Buddhist text, the Karanya Buha Sutra. The Karanya Buha Sutra was written in Lichchhavi script and block printed on lokta paper and is estimated to be between 1,000 and 1,900 years old. [4]
With the introduction of paper craft imports from Tibet in the 1930s, the production of handmade lokta paper began to decline. By the 1960s competition from commercially mass-produced paper from India placed the Nepalese handmade paper industry in a state of terminal decline with only a few families in Baglung and neighboring Parbat District retaining the traditional knowledge of handmade lokta paper production. [2]
In the 1970s interest in rejuvenating lokta craft paper making occurred as the tourism industry in Nepal began to grow. [5] Moreover, an effective conservation program was started in 1970 for the development of national parks and wildlife reserves in Nepal to provide raw materials for the development of forest based industries such as the production of lokta paper. [6]
In the 1980s the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Agricultural Development Bank of Nepal/Small Farmer Development Program (ADBN/SFDP) launched the CDHP (Community Development and Health Project) project to revive Nepal's indigenous paper making processes. [2]
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, with the growth of the popularity of lokta paper on the rise, Nepalese social and environmental entrepreneurs sought out and developed international trading partners and the export market for handmade lokta paper was established. Today the handmade paper industry in Nepal is growing at a rate of 15% per year. [2]
Once produced, lokta paper can last for several millennia (ca. 2000–3500 years).
Lokta paper production is a forest–based industry. [2] It relies as much on a ready supply of Daphne bark as it does on the skills of traditional paper makers and block printers, and on markets for end products. [7] There are four main steps in manufacturing and marketing of lokta paper and lokta paper craft products:
Daphne shrubs are widespread at middle elevations across Nepal, covering more than million hectares of forest land spread across 55 districts; of these, 25 districts have an abundant supply. [8] Like true laurel plants ( Laurus nobilis ) of Turkey and Syria, the Daphne shrub is one of the world's few underutilized species. [9] [10]
Lokta is a non–wood forest product (NWFP) harvested from protected areas (national parks, reserves, conservation areas) and is an important reservoir of biological resources maintained under in situ condition in the unique and diverse Himalayan ecosystems. [6] When harvested, the lokta bush automatically regenerates to a fully grown 4–5 meter plant with in 5–7 years. [6]
Women's involvement: The poor rural women of Nepal have traditionally been the principal forest users. Current economic conditions have reinforced the local employment of women, as many men are leaving the rural villages in search of employment. [6] [9]
The Cottage Industry Department of Nepal reports 377 registered handmade paper production industries, out of approximately 600 units operating in the country. Of these,175 manufacture about 30,000 metric tons of paper products each year. Yet, despite this major increase in handmade paper production in recent years, large scale lokta resources remain untapped. Handmade lokta–based craft paper products continue to offer considerable economic sustainability for poor rural Nepalese women due to their high–quality niche market potential. [9]
Although the traditional uses of lokta paper were largely restricted to government documents or religious texts, today lokta paper use is wide spread. Lokta paper is used for prayer flags, [4] book bindings, [4] restaurant menus, wallpaper [11] wrapping paper to retain the potency of incense, spices and medicine, [4] packaging, [12] origami, [13] and even dresses. [14]
A handicraft is a traditional main sector of craft making and applies to a wide range of creative and design activities that are related to making things with one's hands and skill, including work with textiles, moldable and rigid materials, paper, plant fibers, clay, etc. One of the oldest handicraft is Dhokra; this is a sort of metal casting that has been used in India for over 5,000 years and is still used. In Iranian Baluchistan, women still make red ware hand-made pottery with dotted ornaments, much similar to the 4,000-year-old pottery tradition of Kalpurgan, an archaeological site near the village. Usually, the term is applied to traditional techniques of creating items that are both practical and aesthetic. Handicraft industries are those that produce things with hands to meet the needs of the people in their locality without using machines.
Origami is the Japanese art of paper folding. In modern usage, the word "origami" is often used as an inclusive term for all folding practices, regardless of their culture of origin. The goal is to transform a flat square sheet of paper into a finished sculpture through folding and sculpting techniques. Modern origami practitioners generally discourage the use of cuts, glue, or markings on the paper. Origami folders often use the Japanese word kirigami to refer to designs which use cuts.
Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks or skeleton cars. In forestry, the term logging is sometimes used narrowly to describe the logistics of moving wood from the stump to somewhere outside the forest, usually a sawmill or a lumber yard. In common usage, however, the term may cover a range of forestry or silviculture activities.
Papermaking is the manufacture of paper and cardboard, which are used widely for printing, writing, and packaging, among many other purposes. Today almost all paper is made using industrial machinery, while handmade paper survives as a specialized craft and a medium for artistic expression.
Rice paper is a product constructed of paper-like materials made from different plants. These include:
Washi (和紙) is traditional Japanese paper processed by hand using fibers from the inner bark of the gampi tree, the mitsumata shrub, or the paper mulberry (kōzo) bush.
Banana paper is a type of paper created from banana plant bark or banana peel fibers. Banana paper has a lower density, higher stiffness, higher disposability, higher renewability, and higher tensile strength compared to traditional paper. These qualities are due to the cellular composition of banana fiber, which consists of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin.
Amate is a type of bark paper that has been manufactured in Mexico since the precontact times. It was used primarily to create codices.
Nepalese handicraft history can be traced back to the Stone Age when human beings were inadequate of tools of every things. The history of artistic handicrafts only began during the 5th century AD, when different religions began to form their bases among the people of Nepal. Hence we see a lot of religious influence on Nepalese handicrafts.
Korean paper or hanji (Korean: 한지) refers to traditional handmade paper from Korea. Hanji is made from the inner bark of the paper mulberry, a tree native to Korea that grows well on its rocky mountainsides. Another crucial material used in its creation is the mucilage that oozes from the roots of Hibiscus manihot. This substance helps suspend the individual fibers in water.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and guide to forestry:
The Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) is a sustainability organization operating in the U.S. and Canada that works across four pillars: standards, conservation, community, and education. SFI was founded in 1994 by the American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA). SFI is the world's largest single forest certification standard by area. SFI is headquartered in Ottawa and Washington, D.C.
A forest product is any material derived from forestry for direct consumption or commercial use, such as lumber, paper, or fodder for livestock. Wood, by far the dominant product of forests, is used for many purposes, such as wood fuel or the finished structural materials used for the construction of buildings, or as a raw material, in the form of wood pulp, that is used in the production of paper. All other non-wood products derived from forest resources, comprising a broad variety of other forest products, are collectively described as non-timber forest products (NTFP). Non-timber forest products are viewed to have fewer negative effects on forest ecosystem when providing income sources for local community.
The Russian forestry industry is a set of Russian industries related to wood harvesting and processing. As one of the oldest sectors in the country's economy, Russia's timber industry continues to bring in about $20 billion per year. Russia has more than a fifth of the world's forests, making it the largest forest country in the world. According to data for 2015, the total forest area has exceeded 885 million hectares, representing 45% of the total area of the country. The stock of wood in the area was 82 billion cubic meters. However in 2023 academics complained that not enough information had been published.
Daphne bholua, the Nepalese paper plant, is a species of flowering shrub in the genus Daphne of the family Thymelaeaceae. It grows at altitudes of 1,700–3,500 m (5,577–11,483 ft) in the Himalayas and neighbouring mountain ranges, from Nepal to southern China. At lower altitudes it is found as an evergreen in thickets and forest margins; at higher altitudes, it is deciduous and is usually found in pastures and grassy glades. It usually reaches a height of about 2.5 m, though some specimens reach 4 m (13 ft) or more.
Bhutanese art is similar to Tibetan art. Both are based upon Vajrayana Buddhism and its pantheon of teachers and divine beings.
Tree-free paper, also known as no tree paper, offers an alternative to traditional wood-pulp paper due to its unique raw material composition. This type of paper is considered more eco-friendly especially when evaluating its entire life cycle.
The wood industry or timber industry is the industry concerned with forestry, logging, timber trade, and the production of primary forest products and wood products and secondary products like wood pulp for the pulp and paper industry. Some of the largest producers are also among the biggest owners of forest. The wood industry has historically been and continues to be an important sector in many economies.
Daphne papyracea is a shrub, of the family Thymelaeaceae. It is evergreen, and is found across Asia, from Pakistan through central Nepal to China. Generally it is found at elevations from 700 to 3,100 metres. Daphne laciniata from Yunnan has been treated as a separate species or as part of D. papyracea.
Eastern Rukum is a mountain district of Lumbini Province of Nepal situated along the Dhaulagiri mountain range. It is also the only mountain district of the province with its tallest mountain Putha Hiunchuli situated in the west end of Dhaulagiri II mountain chain, at an elevation of 7,246 meters. The drainage source of ancient Airavati river, one of the five sacred rivers of Buddhism, lies in the lesser Himalayas of the district. With a Dhaulagiri mountain range, lakes, Magar culture and its political history, Eastern Rukum has been among the top travel destinations of Nepal as designated by the Government of Nepal.
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