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 of high elevation evergreen shrubs primarily from two species of Daphne (plant) (Greek: meaning "Laurel"): Daphne bholua and Daphne papyracea , known collectively and vernacularly as lokta bushes. [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:
The Daphne shrub, a subspecies of laurel, grows wildly and covers more than million hectares of forest land in 55 districts of Nepal, of which 25 districts have an abundant supply. [8] Like the 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]
Bamboos are a diverse group of mostly evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family, in the case of Dendrocalamus sinicus individual culms reaching a length of 46 meters, up to 36 centimeters in thickness and a weight of up to 450 kilograms. The internodes of bamboos can also be of great length. Kinabaluchloa wrayi has internodes up to 2.5 meters in length. and Arthrostylidium schomburgkii with lower internodes up to 5 meters in length, exceeded in length only by papyrus. By contrast, the culms of the tiny bamboo Raddiella vanessiae of the savannas of French Guiana are only 10–20 millimeters in length by about two millimeters in width. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, but it probably comes from the Dutch or Portuguese language, which originally borrowed it from Malay or Kannada.
A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one's hand or by using only simple, non-automated related tools like scissors, carving implements, or hooks. It 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 4,000 years and is still used. In Iranian Baluchistan, women still make red ware hand-made pottery with dotted ornaments, much similar to the 5,000-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.
Daphne is a genus of between 70 and 95 species of deciduous and evergreen shrubs in the family Thymelaeaceae, native to Asia, Europe and north Africa. They are noted for their scented flowers and often brightly coloured berries. Two species are used to make paper. Many species are grown in gardens as ornamental plants; the smaller species are often used in rock gardens. All parts of daphnes are poisonous, especially the berries.
Card making is the craft of hand-making greeting cards. Many people with interests in allied crafts such as scrapbooking and stamping have begun to use their skills to start making handmade cards. This has contributed to cardmaking becoming a popular hobby.
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.
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 is the name of traditional handmade paper from Korea. Hanji is made from the inner bark of Broussonetia papyrifera, known colloquially as paper mulberry, a tree native to Korea that grows well on its rocky mountainsides, known in Korean as dak. The formation aid crucial to making hanji is the mucilage that oozes from the roots of Hibiscus manihot. This substance helps suspend the individual fibers in water.
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.
Daphne laureola, commonly called spurge-laurel, is a shrub in the flowering plant family Thymelaeaceae. Despite the name, this woodland plant is neither a spurge nor a laurel. Its native range covers much of Europe and extends to Algeria, Morocco and the Azores.
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 ༼འབྲུག་པའི་སྒྱུ་རྩལ༽ is similar to Tibetan art. Both are based upon Vajrayana Buddhism and its pantheon of teachers and divine beings.
Mexican handcrafts and folk art is a complex collection of items made with various materials and intended for utilitarian, decorative or other purposes. Some of the items produced by hand in this country include ceramics, wall hangings, vases, furniture, textiles and much more. In Mexico, both crafts created for utilitarian purposes and folk art are collectively known as “artesanía” as both have a similar history and both are a valued part of Mexico's national identity. Mexico's artesanía tradition is a blend of indigenous and European techniques and designs. This blending, called “mestizo” was particularly emphasized by Mexico's political, intellectual and artistic elite in the early 20th century after the Mexican Revolution toppled Porfirio Díaz’s French-style and modernization-focused presidency. Today, Mexican artesanía is exported and is one of the reasons why tourists are attracted to the country. However, competition from manufactured products and imitations from countries like China have caused problems for Mexico’s artisans.
San Pablito is a small town located on the side of the Guajalote Mountain in the Sierra Norte de Puebla mountain region in central east Mexico. It belongs to the Pahuatlán municipality of the state of Puebla. Culturally it is dominated by the Otomi although it is part of the La Huasteca region.
Edgeworthia gardneri is a plant in the Thymelaeaceae family. It is a small evergreen shrub growing up to 3–4 metres (10–13 ft) tall. It can be distinguished by its brownish red stem. The flowers are hermaphrodite.
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, rich 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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