Jungshi Handmade Paper Factory

The Jungshi Handmade Paper Factory is a small workshop about 1 km from the centre of Thimphu where Bhutanese paper, deh-sho, is still made by hand. It was set up in 1990 by the Ministry of Trade and Industry to keep the traditional method going on a commercial footing, and its name means natural. Deh-sho has long been used by monasteries for religious texts and prayer books, and paper making is one of the thirteen traditional arts taught at the National Institute for Zorig Chusum.

Watching the process

The raw material is the bark of two highland shrubs, daphne and dhekap. In the workshop you follow it through each stage: the bark is soaked and boiled, then beaten by hand into a pulp and mixed with water. A worker dips a fine screen into the vat and lifts it out with a thin, even layer that becomes one sheet. The wet sheets are stacked and pressed, then peeled apart and dried against a heated wall. No large machinery is involved, which is why the sheets keep their fibres and slightly uneven edges.

Visitors can often make a sheet of their own if they ask, and the shop sells plain paper, notebooks, cards, envelopes, bags and lampshades. The workshop also exports to the United States, Japan, Europe, India and Nepal. A visit takes 20 to 30 minutes, so it slots easily into a day of sightseeing around the capital. The floor near the vats is wet, so wear shoes with some grip. See our Thimphu district guide for nearby stops.