Thimi Pottery Town

Thimi is a traditional Newari town in Bhaktapur District, renowned as one of Nepal's foremost centers of traditional pottery and papier-mâché mask making. The town's streets are lined with workshops where artisans craft hand-thrown clay pots, decorative vases, and the vividly painted masks used in Kathmandu Valley festivals.Thimi's Balkumari Temple and the annual Sindoor Jatra festival, when worshippers are doused in red vermillion powder, are highlights of the town's vibrant cultural calendar.

Thimi is properly Madhyapur Thimi and lies between Kathmandu and Bhaktapur on the valley's old east to west road. Sindoor Jatra falls on the first day of the Nepali year in April, when dozens of khat palanquins are carried at a run between the town's temples. Potters still fire in wood and straw kilns in the lanes behind the main street, and pots are sold from the courtyards where they are made.