सुनार (Sunar)
The Sunar (goldsmith) caste of Patan maintains Nepal's finest continuous gold granulation tradition — unbroken since the Malla period (12th-18th CE). Uses the same copper salt paste bonding as Phnom Penh revival (CRAFT-0524) but with a refinement not documented elsewhere: sphere spacing calibrated so that the shadow cast by each sphere exactly touches but does not overlap adjacent sphere shadows under 45-degree raking light. 'Shadows touching not overlapping' produces a visual rhythm that changes with viewing angle — the Sunar master's aesthetic standard. Shadow calibration tested before bonding; spheres adjusted with tweezers until correct. Post-bond 45-degree shadow verification confirms quality.
Risk level: Critically Endangered · Nepal national ICH list; Newar cultural heritage
Nau is the hereditary Newar carpenter-carver tradition producing the elaborate architectural wood carving of Kathmandu Valley temples — the peacock window of Bhaktapur, erotic temple struts, and the torana (door pediments).
Pashmina uses the undercoat fiber (pashm) of the Changra goat from high-altitude pastures of Mustang, Humla, and Dolpo (12-16 microns diameter).
Nepalese Dhaka is a fine cotton supplementary weft weave from Terhathum District, eastern Nepal — distinct from Bangladeshi Dhaka muslin.
Tibetan carpet weaving in Nepal is maintained by Tibetan refugee communities in Boudhanath and Jawalakhel using the Tibetan loop-pile technique: a temporary rod laid across the warp, wool looped around both warp threads and rod, cut along…
Limbu backstrap weaving is the textile tradition of the Limbu people of far eastern Nepal (Taplejung, Panchthar, Ilam districts) — producing the yangdang (wrap skirt) with supplementary weft geometric patterns in red, black, and white on a…
The Tamang people of eastern Nepal (Sindhupalchok, Dolakha, and Ramechhap districts) maintain a distinct silver jewelry tradition producing the large circular sun-and-moon earrings (chandrahar), heavy silver necklaces (hansuli), and upper…
Jewelry that sets fired stoneware (gres) segments, painted with geometric and figurative motifs, into hand-fabricated silver bezels, so that the ceramic inlay, like a small mosaic, is the centerpiece rather than an accent; its makers call…
The filigree jewelry making tradition of Lugano and the Ticino lake district — the construction of intricate open-work jewelry from twisted wire elements soldered together without any base sheet, a technique brought to Ticino through the…
Casting real lace directly into silver, so that a ring or cuff carries the exact negative impression of the textile: an openwork, web-like relief that carving or stamping cannot reproduce.
Platería criolla — the chasing and engraving of silver into rastra belt buckles, facón knife sheaths and handles, stirrups, spurs, bit fittings, and mate implements — developed as the gaucho's own material expression of hard-won wealth…
The engraving, chasing, and niello decoration of silver in the mountain village of Kubachi, Dagestan, mentioned in historical annals since the 4th century, where roughly 300 of the village's approximately 2,500 residents work as…
The tin streaming tradition of Cornwall — the extraction of alluvial cassiterite (tin ore) from stream gravels by washing and gravity separation, the oldest documented mining craft in Britain (Bronze Age tin was exported from Cornwall…