History of Nepalese Hand Knotted Carpet

But despite outside influences and contacts, the Nepalese carpet is a splendid example of the artistic genius of the people as a whole. The simplicity and elegance of a village-made Nepalese carpet can at times be extraordinary. Often made under conditions of relative poverty, with a limited range of Colors and raw materials available and with no other reason for making the carpet than that a carpet was needed in the household, Nepalese farmers produced the most wonderful carpets. Hand knotted carpets have been made in the Nepalese highlands, especially in the northern areas, by indigenous craftsmen for centuries.

The first written evidence of Nepalese textile production is found in Indian sources of the Ashoka period. Kautilya’s Arthashastra (The Science of Economics) refers, in the rules for the superintendent of the treasury, to Nepalese blankets as items of trade. ‘That (blanket) which is made up of eight pieces and black in colour, is called Bhingis used as rainproof, likewise is Apasaraka – both are products of Nepal (Naipalakam)’ (Shamasastry 1908, part 1,95). Reference is made also to a Nepali woolen blanket being sold in Pataliputra (now Patna).

It is quite probable that the blankets referred to are the Radi, wollen blankets, which are still manufactured and in demand today as protection against cold and rain. Inhabitants of hills and mountains of Nepal have been traditionally involved in handicrafts making and cottage industry as their side occupation. Particularly, the people of the arid mountainous regions where dependency on agriculture is practically impossible due to harsh terrain, and poor soils at high altitudes compelled the inhabitants to go for off-farm sector that is cottage industry like carpet weaving. Carpets weaving were already a natural skill of the highlanders and the traditional carpets, produced by these highlanders, locally known as Radi, Pakhi, are even today famous amongst not only the Nepalese but also quite many foreigners. A saddle-carpet appearing in a Nepalese mandala painting of 1564 demonstrates that they were known in Nepal certainly over 400 years ago. The people northern Nepal today uses the carpets mainly as seat-pads, beds and saddle blankets. Therefore, carpets weaving in Nepal should not be looked upon as a new venture started only forty-fifty years before. From the quality and commercial production point of view, it may be true but never from the origin viewpoint.

The year 1960 can be regarded as the landmark for the commercial production of the carpet in the Kingdom of Nepal. This is the year when the Tibetan refugees, who fled into Nepal after the takeover of the Tibet by the Chinese government in 1959, started making carpets for their livelihood. Most of the refugees taking asylum in Nepal were already expert and experienced in ancient carpet weaving skills.

The specialties of the Tibetan weavers or the Tibetan carpets for that sense, proved to be the added assets that helped boost the scope for skill acquisition, product improvement and product diversification. This provided an impetus to the carpet weaving and all other related activities sectors for which already a ready pool of human resources existed at the individual household level.

As the number of migrating refugees increased, refugee camps were set up in Nepal. In many of these camps, carpet weaving was introduced to provide a livelihood for the fleeing refugees such as the refugees camps founded in Jawalakhel, Boudha, Swayambhu in Kathmandu valley and Solokhumbu and Pokhara outside the Kathmandu valley. The establishment of carpet weaving in the Tibetan refugee camps marked the beginning of the mass production of the beautiful hand-woven items in Nepal.

The increasing demand for carpets among tourists and other foreign consumers was the final catalyst, which forever changed the design and the production of carpets in Nepal. Tibetan and Nepalese businessmen magnetized by the chance for prosperity began to open factories for the sole purpose of manufacturing Tibetan styled Nepalese carpets for tourist trade and exportation. No longer were these lovely works of art to be woven by Tibetans and Nepalese in the shade of the Tibetan dwellings, or to be produced for the benefit of the Tibetan people. Rather, the design and the production of the Tibetan carpet began to change and started to be referred to as a “hand-knotted, woolen Nepalese carpet”, now commercially popular as Nepal carpet and mass-produced for the aesthetic tastes of foreign buyers.

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