How it began
In the late 1950s Ganesh Man Maharjan of Palpa returned to his hometown from Bengal, where he had learned to weave khadi cloth. Finding khadi too plain, he experimented with weaving small geometric patterns, inspired by the Dambar Kumari Dhaka, into the cloth with colored cotton threads. The Palpali Dhaka Association dates the textile workshop he established to 2015 in the Nepali calendar, about 1958. The fabric became known across Nepal as Palpali Dhaka.
How it works
Palpali Dhaka is woven by hand on a loom with a shuttle. Geometric motifs in colored cotton thread, originally red, black, yellow and green, are worked into a khadi ground cloth as it is woven. The result is a patterned fabric that is cut and sewn into caps and other garments.
Who pushed back
During the civil war of 1996 to 2006 many weavers fled, looms were abandoned and most factories closed or shrank. When demand returned there were too few weavers, and cheap, low-grade imported imitations filled the market, damaging the standing of the hand-loomed fabric. Dhaka came to be worn mainly for ceremony and national pride.
What changed first
The fabric was taken up by the Shah dynasty and the Rana aristocracy, and wearing it became a status symbol. During the reign of King Mahendra the Dhaka topi was declared the national cap of Nepal. The cloth created a cottage industry that at its height employed around 2,000 weavers from across Nepal and supplied more than 36 districts.
Where it stands today
After the 2015 earthquake, interest in heritage conservation grew. Workshop owners, Tansen Municipality, the Lumbini Province government and the Palpa Chamber of Commerce formed the Palpali Dhaka Association in 2019 to train artisans, develop new fabrics and products under a common brand, and work with designers and buyers.
