Jungshi Handmade Paper Factory: Bhutan’s Living Craft Tradition
Away from the dzongs and monasteries, Thimphu holds a quieter kind of heritage stop — a working factory where paper is still made almost exactly as it was centuries ago, by hand, from local plants, using techniques passed down through generations. Jungshi Handmade Paper Factory is small, unglamorous, and genuinely fascinating: one of the best places in the capital to see a traditional Bhutanese craft still in active production rather than preserved behind glass.
A Craft with Deep Roots
Traditional Bhutanese paper, known as deysho, has been made in the country for centuries, originally developed for religious texts, prayer flags, and official government documents. Historically, its durability and resistance to insects made it especially valued for preserving sacred scriptures — a reason Buddhist monasteries relied on it long before industrial paper existed. Jungshi, founded in the 1990s, was established to keep this traditional process alive commercially, employing local artisans and continuing to produce paper using the same plant-based methods used for generations.
How the Paper Is Made
The process starts with the inner bark of two local plants: the Daphne shrub and, less commonly, the Dhekap tree, both of which grow wild in Bhutan’s forests. The bark is boiled, then pounded by hand into a soft pulp, and mixed with water in large vats. From there, artisans use a traditional screen-and-frame method to lift a thin, even layer of pulp from the vat, which is then dried in the sun or over gentle heat until it sets into a sheet of textured, slightly rough paper.
Visitors touring the factory can watch each stage of this process in person — the boiling, the pounding, the screening, and the drying — carried out by workers in an open workshop rather than behind any kind of barrier. It’s a hands-on, unpolished look at manufacturing that feels closer to a village craft demonstration than an industrial tour.
What’s in the Shop
The finished paper is sold on-site in a range of forms: plain sheets, notebooks, photo albums, lampshades, and decorative items, often embedded with dried flowers, leaves, or other natural textures pressed directly into the pulp. It makes for one of the more distinctive, packable souvenirs available in Bhutan — genuinely handmade, locally produced, and tied to a specific, centuries-old craft rather than mass-produced.
Planning Your Visit
- Getting there: Located on the outskirts of Thimphu, a short taxi ride from the city center.
- Best time to visit: Weekday mornings, when the workshop is in full swing and production is easiest to observe.
- What to expect: A brief, informal factory tour followed by a shop where you can buy paper products directly.
- Combine it with: Thimphu’s other craft and culture stops, such as the nearby Simply Bhutan Museum or the National Textile Museum, for a fuller picture of Bhutanese traditional arts.
It’s a modest stop compared to Bhutan’s grand fortresses and temples, but Jungshi offers something they can’t: a chance to watch an entire traditional craft, start to finish, still being made by hand for a living.