At 10000 Feet, This Arunachal Village Keeps a 1000-Year Paper Craft Alive

Jun 17, 2026, 08:42 PM

Photo Credit : Getty Images/sabirmallick, The Telegraph, PIB

Before China became the world’s paper factory, a tiny village in Arunachal Pradesh supplied a unique handmade paper across East Asia. Yet, even today, most Indians have never heard its story.

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High in Tawang, above 10,000 feet, the Monpa community has spent over 1,000 years making “Mon Shugu” paper by hand, using shrubs, ash water, bamboo screens, and inherited knowledge.

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This was no ordinary paper. Sacred Buddhist scriptures written in gold and silver were copied onto Mon Shugu because the sheets could survive for centuries without tearing, fading, or decaying in mountain climates.

Photo Credit : The Telegraph

For centuries, paper-making was limited in Tibet and Bhutan. So monasteries across the Buddhist world depended on paper that travelled from Tawang through ancient Himalayan trade routes.

Photo Credit : Chalo Hoppo

Mon Shugu was made from the inner bark of a local shrub called Shugu Sheng. The bark was boiled in ash water, beaten into pulp, spread on bamboo sieves, and naturally dried in the sun.

Photo Credit : Chalo Hoppo

Making even one sheet could take an entire day. In villages like Mukto, almost every household practised this craft, and children grew up around prayer papers, manuscripts, and monastery records.

Then cheap industrial paper flooded the market. Ironically, the craft that traced its papermaking roots to ancient China was nearly erased by mass-produced imports, leaving only a few families to preserve the tradition.

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In 2020, social worker Maling Gombu wrote to the Khadi and Village Industries Commission, asking them to revive the craft. By 2021, a Monpa handmade paper unit was established in Tawang.

Photo Credit : Culture Devi, PIB

Today, local women and artisans are making Mon Shugu once again, while younger generations relearn the tradition. A civilisation once carried its prayers on paper made in Arunachal Pradesh.

Photo Credit : Chalo Hoppo