HANDICRAFTS

Besides the physical monuments and cultural festivities, the Newars of Bhaktapur have also inherited a long history of craftsmanship. It is here where visitors can have rare close-up views of Nepal’s master craftsmen giving continuity to their time-honored traditions of art. In its two famed Pottery Squares, they can see potters giving shape to lumps of clay on their traditional wooden wheels. Besides, they also encounter the city’s well-acclaimed artisans who, with their wondrously skilled hands, produce a great variety of handicrafts. Bhaktapur’s indigenous handicraft varieties include paubha scroll paintings, papier-mâché masks, cotton cloth, woodcarvings, metalwork, jewelry and ceramic products. In addition, the home-spun haku-patasi (black sari), black cap and the delicious Juju-dhau, literally the "King of all yogurt varieties", have also made this city a favored spot for tourists and the Nepalese alike.
Tourists can watch potters create works of art in the Pottery Squares. Indigenous (Newar) handicrafts include paubha scroll paintings, papier-mâché masks, cotton cloth, woodcarvings, metalwork, jewelry and ceramic products, haku-patasi (black sari), black caps and Juju-dhau (yogurt).