Hari Chandra Prajapati was only 14 when he started learning how to mould a lump of clay into a work of art just like his forebears did.&nbsp; There was something about shaping wet clay into everyday items that fascinated the teenager, and inspired him to follow his ancestral trade at a time when his peers were more into video games and movies.&nbsp; By age 15, he had taken over the family business in Thimi started by his great-grandfather. Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/multimedia/take-to-pottery-during-the-pandemic">Take to pottery during the pandemic</a>, Monika Deupala  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2023073005074_da63f4e3c952981b4a03b830df523bf3dcc3f639d0aa5b3648a7be8ce1749054.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="2023073005074_da63f4e3c952981b4a03b830df523bf3dcc3f639d0aa5b3648a7be8ce1749054" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Pottery NT"> </figure>  Today, Jwojolapa Ceramics, tucked away in a narrow alley of this ancient town is a showroom, and a training centre.&nbsp; Beginners and professional pottery makers all come here to revive a millennia-old tradition that Thimi is famous for. Kathmandu Valley used to be a lake till as recently as 10,000 years ago, and when the water drained away it left fertile alluvium ideal for agriculture and pottery.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=330">Casting years in earth</a>, Abha Eli Phoboo&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2023073005078_2462bdf8a60ae2a4f75eb241266bef1b1eaaeabd162fc794bc141647b8e10cea.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="2023073005078_2462bdf8a60ae2a4f75eb241266bef1b1eaaeabd162fc794bc141647b8e10cea" data-rendition-name="original" width="1800" height="1200" loading="lazy" alt="Pottery NT "> </figure>  “Nobody is ever perfect in the art of pottery, but we all carry on the legacy of our ancestors and also innovate with ceramics,” says Prajapati. Nepal’s handmade ceramics have been replaced by mass produced items from India and China that are more durable.&nbsp; But ceramic kitchen items and household pottery products are experiencing a renaissance in Nepal, as demand grows for more home and hand-made articles with artistic designs.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/bhaktapurs-potters-adapt-to-survive/">Bhaktapur's potters adapt to survive</a>, Monika Deupala  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2023073005078_7804092c54015b2a900afb5647f0f0139df1c20f5cce70dbca819f808f06d023.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="2023073005078_7804092c54015b2a900afb5647f0f0139df1c20f5cce70dbca819f808f06d023" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Pottery NT"> </figure>  Clay pots and earthenware have always been extensively used in religious rituals, now people are eager to incorporate them in their daily lives as well. “As more people become aware of its significance, they are relearning and reviving this art, which makes me happy,” says Prajapati, who is also a certified pottery and ceramics skills trainer having taught in Korea and many schools in Kathmandu Valley. Many who visit Prajapati’s shop to learn pottery do so because they consider it a form of therapy as they let the fingers shape the oozing clay.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=6805">Feats of clay</a>, Alexandra Alter  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2023073005078_caae5a4f1d40383d0943a1da7937f3e1de84546d6cf6c99fbc8b2564fc519c42.jpg" data-media-id="editor_7" data-image-id="2023073005078_caae5a4f1d40383d0943a1da7937f3e1de84546d6cf6c99fbc8b2564fc519c42" data-rendition-name="original" width="1800" height="1200" loading="lazy" alt="Pottery NT"> </figure>  With help from the Association of Craft Producers, Prajapati has connected with buyers from all over the world. Business suffered after the 2015 earthquake and during the Covid lockdowns. Prajapati tried his hands at other businesses but it was inevitable that he would return to a profession he was passionate about. &nbsp; Large objects like flowerpots are still fired with wood, but electric kilns have simplified the process and most pieces are glass-glazed. Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/coming-out-of-the-woodwork?preview_nonce=9d7ef77938">Coming out of the woodwork</a>, Kunda Dixit  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2023073005078_65e6ae633debc7fca43a423af12ff0622ed4ef6c41235d3bd00daf1e24d80af3.jpg" data-media-id="editor_9" data-image-id="2023073005078_65e6ae633debc7fca43a423af12ff0622ed4ef6c41235d3bd00daf1e24d80af3" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Pottery NT"> </figure>  “We used to turn the potters’ wheel with our hands in the past, but it is easier now with an electric motor. I can focus better on the designs,” he says. Raw clay has become difficult to source because Kathmandu is getting more built-up. Prajapati used to truck in clay from Sintitar, but the place now has apartment blocks, so he has to venture further afield to Sankhu.&nbsp; Despite challenges, Prajapati is excited for what the future holds for the handicraft art form. He says, “It makes me happy to see the enthusiasm of the younger generation in traditional craft. Now we can preserve our cultural heritage and create opportunities for future generations.” Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/crafting-a-heritage">Crafting a heritage</a>, Shriluna Shrestha

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Hari the Potter

<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181116/636be0ca9c7e80680e083e10jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="426"/>The festival of light is upon us this week, and the Prajapatis of Bhaktapur are busy with their ancestral occupation of moulding clay to make earthen lamps called pala.This week, the courtyards and sidewalks of old town of Bhaktapur were covered in clay lamps and other pottery including piggy banks soaked in coloured water, and drying in the sun until they can be fired.<a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/take-to-pottery-during-the-pandemic/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Take to pottery during the pandemic</a>, Monika Deupala<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181116/636be0cd9c7e80680e083e11jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="426"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181116/636be0cf9c7e80680e083e12jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="426"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181116/636be0d29c7e80680e083e13jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="426">Prajapati families are expecting to make a decent income selling clay lamps for the festival despite the pandemic. And while modern LED garden lights from China have largely replaced earthen lamps in many households, people still regard the clay oil lamps as auspicious for Laxmi Puja, Mha Puja and Bhai Tika, which fall from 14-16 November this year.Entire courtyard and toles are alight with clay lamps and decorated with colourful mandala on the main Tihar days.<a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/bhaktapurs-potters-adapt-to-survive/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Bhaktapur's potters adapt to survive</a>, Monika Deupala<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181116/636be0d49c7e80680e083e14jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="426"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181116/636be0d69c7e80680e083e15jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="426"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181116/636be0d99c7e80680e083e16jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="426">There is however a genuine concern about the future of this dying profession. Most young people have gone abroad for education or jobs, or have taken up other professions so there is no next generation to carry on the tradition.Moreover, there is now a growing shortage of special black clay required to make pottery because of haphazard urbanisation. Pottery production shifted from Lalitpur and Kathmandu in the first place because they ran out of proper clay. Now Bhaktapur is turning into a concrete jungle with houses and buildings built over farmlands and former clay pits.<a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/a-time-to-every-purpose-occupation,3023" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">A time to every purpose</a>, Sahina Shrestha

A light for Tihar

As Nepal’s lockdown goes into its sixth month, people are taking up new indoor hobbies and finding ways to do more creative and calming activities. One of them is taking up ceramics.And where else to discover one’s talent for the craft than in Bhaktapur, the centre of traditional pottery in Kathmandu Valley. The craft demands patience and concentration as a lump of clay is moulded on the potter’s wheel, fired and then turned into a work of art.Archana Panthi, 25, a theatre artist from Kathmandu used to buy ceramic gifts for friends, but decided to use the lockdown to learn pottery herself.  She enrolled in Cera Nepal when the lockdown was eased, and the experience was so positive that she is determined to go back when travel restrictions are lifted.“The owner gave us instructions, and we moulded the clay with our palms and fingers, and once they were ready we could even take it back with us, it was a whole new experience,” Panthi says.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109141112/636ba7ee9c7e80680e0737b2jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"/><a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.facebook.com/ceranepal1/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Cera Nepal</a> is a company specialising in fine ceramics, and builds on Bhaktapur’s pottery tradition, but instead of just making flower pots or water containers, it tries to be more creative with different items and innovative designs.For Ratna Prasad Prajapati, 47, setting up Cera Nepal Udyog in 1984 was just an extension of his ancestral occupation of potters. He admits that when he was younger he was not so interested in the profession of his forebears, and dabbled in importing and selling TV sets.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109141112/636ba7f19c7e80680e0737b3jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000">But he switched, and found that innovating and improving on traditional pottery items was actually quite a lucrative business. He started producing crockery sets for hotels, decorative pieces, earthenware, and lately even new designs for terracotta tiles for flooring and roofs.“What we make is still what our ancestors made, we have just tinkered with the techniques by glazing so that the items have a shine, have different colours and designs and also make the items more aesthetic,” Prajapati explains.Unlike other businessmen, Prajapati does not want to keep the skill and craft to himself, but share it as widely as possible, which is why he has started taking on students into his ceramics school. It is a way to not just keep his family occupation alive, but also spread the traditions among other Nepalis who can experiment with new techniques.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109141112/636ba7f39c7e80680e0737b4jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"><a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/bhaktapurs-potters-adapt-to-survive/">Bhaktapur's potters adapt to survive</a>, Monika Deupala“It takes days to see a blob of clay transform itself into a perfectly blended crockery set. That is what is most satisfying, and it is also very soothing work and calms the mind,” adds Prajapati, whose daughter Alina is now managing the company.Due to the pandemic, however, business is down. It was Alina’s idea to offer pottery lessons when the restrictions were lifted in July. The classes were held only on weekends, there was a limited number of apprentices and proper precautions were taken to space them out.Alina Prajapati has been watching her father working on the potter’s wheel from a young age. Like her father, she tried other jobs, but has returned to the family’s pottery business with new ideas and innovation.“I barely see people of my generation going back to their traditional family occupations, but after I saw the potential of cermaics I thought it was high time I helped my father with his business,” says 25-year-old Alina, who hopes that the classes will take off once the lockdown is lifted.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109141112/636ba7f79c7e80680e0737b5jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000">Subekchya KC, 35 was on her maternity break before lockdown and joined the pottery lessons at Cera Nepal, bringing along her older four-year-old son. She says, “It was a break for me. I forgot all my stress while making a bowl or ceramic plate. And my son found it lots of fun too. I completely forgot about postpartum angst, it was a real stress buster for me.”Pottery making has often been described as being therapeutic. The mind is focused on what one wants to create, and it needs concentration and delicate work. Alina Prajapati says there have been many troubled adolescents who have found it to be useful to relax mind and body.Sushil Shrestha, 34, used to work in an event management company and had a stressful job. It took just one session at Cera Nepal to change his entire outlook on life, friends, work and family.He says, “A day spent in front of the potter’s wheel has taught me to be more patient and concentrated on creating something. It is good therapy to be focused on what you want to do”.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109141112/636ba7fa9c7e80680e0737b6jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000">For Rajiv Sharma, 37, it was boredom during the lockdown that made him enroll at Cera Nepal. He took his young son along, who was also tired of being at home.“Making something out of nothing was a great experience, it also allowed me to bond better with my son and we enjoyed shaping the clay together,” Sharma says.Both Ratna and Alina Prajapati hope to restart the ceramics classes as soon as the lockdown is lifted. They see it as their responsibility to society to keep their family heritage alive, while giving people a chance to destress during the Covid-19 crisis.Read also:<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/featured-videos/out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new/"> In with the old, in with the new</a>, Sewa Bhattarai

Monika Deupala

Take to pottery during the pandemic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fToB9yl5T44Tihar is right around the corner, but the festival of lights is not going to be a holiday for the Prajapatis of Bhaktapur. They are busy with their ancestral occupation of moulding clay to make earthen lamps called pala.This week, the courtyards and sidewalks of Bhaktapur are covered in clay lamps, soaked in coloured water, and drying in the sun until they can be fired.Das Ram Prajapati has been carrying on the profession of his forebears, and says proudly that his family sold 25,000 clay lamps last year, earning Rs 80,000. But even though modern LED garden lights from China have replaced earthen lamps in many households, the clay oil lamps are still regarded as auspicious for <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/issue/167/Culture/5035#.W9rM_9UzbIU" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Laxmi Puja, Mha Puja and Bhai Tika</a>, which fall between 7-10 Noati clan have started mass producing the lamps with a wheel machine, but the purists still stick to traditional manual chakra to produce potteries the old fashioned way.“I don’t feel good about using a machine to make pottery, my grandfather taught me to use the chakra when I was a boy and I still enjoy using it,” says 74-year-old Lalit Prajapati, the only person making pala the traditional way in the Talako area of Bhaktapur.His skill of turning a clay mould into beautiful pottery attracts tourists by the hundreds to Talako. “It is necessary to preserve our tradition, rather than going for mass production and money. We should not forget why we are making them in the first place,” he adds.Read also: <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/a-time-to-every-purpose-occupation,3023" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A time to every purpose</a>, Sahina Shrestha<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=17564#.W9rM89UzbIU" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A healthy tihar</a>, Buddha Basnyat<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/bhaktapur-shows-the-way-by-rebuilding-itself/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bhaktapur shows the way by rebuilding itself</a>, Suyog Prajapati<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107171132/636933689c7e80680e03df98jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="933"/><figcaption>Photos: MONIKA DEUPALA</figcaption></figure>What Lalit Prajapati is particularly worried about is that the young have gone abroad for education or jobs, or have taken up other professions. There is no next generation to carry on the tradition.Also, there is now a scarcity of the special black clay needed for making pottery because of the urban sprawl around Bhaktapur. Shiva Kumari Prajapati and her family traditionally sold pala in the markets of all three towns of the valley before <a style="background-color: #ffffff; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/mycity/2014/10/31/tihar-celebrations/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tihar</a>. Residents of the Valley sought the Bhaktapur pala because they knew it was the best quality.Dasa Ram Prajapati says pottery production shifted to Bhaktapur because Patan and Kathmandu ran out of proper clay. But now the concrete jungle has spread to Bhaktapur as well, houses stand over former clay pits.Read also: <a style="font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: 0.15px; background-color: #ffffff;" href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/nation-bhaktapur,597" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bhaktapur's Mithila influence</a>, Bhaskar Koirala<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107171132/6369336b9c7e80680e03df99jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="934">“I am using my two-year-old stockpile of black clay that I bought for Rs2,000 back then, it is much more expensive now,” he says.Nhuchhe Ram Prajapati sources his clay from Harisiddhi, from outside the Valley, or from someone who is building a tall house that need foundations deep enough to reach the black clay layer.Shumser Prajapati is the owner of Samrat Ceramics, and the only one from his generation to still be involved in the ancestral profession. He has been innovating with design and texture of his clay products. “I see it more as an art than a profession,” says Shumsher, who sells double the number of earthen lamps in Tihar compared to the rest of the year.His pala have better designs and finish, and now come with inbuilt wax and wick already attached. He has also started making scented lamps with wax of different colours. His son Samrat takes the lamps to the Asan market in Kathmandu every morning in a van. The father and son say their greatest problem now is to find suitable clay, not buyers.Read also: <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/rebuilding-new-structures-using-old-traditions,2827" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rebuilding new structures using old tradition</a>, Sahina Shrestha<a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/page/tourists-trickle-back-to-Bhaktapur" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bhaktapur is waiting for you</a>, Peregrine Frissell<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107171132/6369336e9c7e80680e03df9ajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="934">

Bhaktapur’s potters adapt to survive

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