About-Us

It’s unusual for a private business to do much more than try to make big bucks, but Tibetan Handicraft & Paper Pvt. Ltd. is anything but usual. Its proprietors have a vision of creating a better Nepal, one that meets the demands of international consumers by sustainably utilizing local plant resources, providing the poor with a source of income they desperately need, encouraging bottom-up development, and promoting Himalayan culture. They do so by providing top-quality Nepali lokta paper products at competitive prices with a guarantee of customer satisfaction. We are dedicated to making social contributions through our business, and we have played a vital role in Nepal’s handicraft sector. We collect raw materials (lokta bark & plain lokta paper) from all across Nepal. We always seek to buy our materials from those under the poverty line, and our business offers them opportunities for employment in their homeplaces. Through the years we have played a role in increasing the standard of living of nearly 100 employees at our facility in Kathmandu and over 1000 of Nepal’s lokta and lokta paper producers. Our main business is to produce 100% handmade lokta paper products: natural & artificially dyed sheet paper, note books, cards, folders, A4 and A5 lokta paper in deckle and cut edge, boxes for trinkets including singing bowls that we sell, incense, photo albums, lampshades, and prayer flags. We always aim to provide quality products with better services and at competitive prices. Our present market includes USA, Australia, UK, Germany, Belgium, India, Netherlands, and Canada.
This business enabled us to start a school, Samten Memorial Educational Academy in Kathmandu, with 410 students and 24 staff, many from underprivileged families. We make it our priority scholarships to all students in need, and we are so grateful that our business is helping bring better education to the capital city. In March 2015 a devastating earthquake shook Nepal and left thousands dead and hundreds of thousands homeless and unemployed or out of school. Partnered with their clients, Tibetan Handicraft & Paper helped provide shelter and work to many of those in need and have played a vital role in stabilizing the lives of countless people around the country.

History

Tibetan Handicraft & Paper Pvt. Ltd. was established first in 1995 by three cousins from Dolkha District east of Kathmandu—Nima Sherpa, Nimto Sherpa and Samten Lama. The three sought to ensure that villagers like themselves, villagers who spent hours harvesting, peeling, and drying lokta bark to make sheets of paper in a time-honoured fashion, would not find themselves with minimal returns because the long trip to the buyers in Kathmandu ate up all their profit. Known first as Tibetan Handicrafts Industry, the cousins drummed up customers among trekking contacts, building an ever-increasing network of buyers across the world. Today they have over 50 valued customers from North America, Western and Eastern Europe and Australia. In addition to the business, in 2006 Nimto, Nima, and many others helped start Samten Memorial Educational Academy in Kapan, Kathmandu to provide quality education to Tibetan Handicraft & Paper employees’ children and other underprivileged children around the area

Mission

Tibetan Handicraft & Paper Pvt. Ltd. is committed to improving the standard of living of the poorest rural and urban Nepalis by providing them with an opportunity to earn an income through paper production.

Objectivities

By producing the various types of quality Nepalese handmade paper products our main objective is to improve the Nepalese standard of living for low-income families by providing them employment and education. We also aim to preserve the traditional papermaking techniques handed down by generations of family artisans. Our foundational commitments are: To provide quality products with better services to our entire customer base To satisfy the international demand for high-quality handmade Nepali paper and paper products To provide a sustainable source of income by buying directly from rural-based lokta harvesters and paper processors as well as by contracting community forest groups To preserve the ancient papermaking techniques of the Himalayan people and highlight Sherpa and Tibetan culture To promote an environmentally-friendly enterprise To provide a quality education to as many Nepali students as possible regardless of income and social status