In February 2020, Maling Gombu, a Tawang-based social worker and lawyer, wrote to the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) — a statutory body dedicated to the development of village industries, about the potential of a 1,000-year-old paper-making craft of the Monpa tribe in Arunachal Pradesh that was languishing.
Taking note of his letter, the KVIC took appropriate actions. Following months of planning, which was abruptly halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the KVIC launched a Monpa handmade paper making unit on 25 December at an erstwhile abandoned government building in Tawang. Called ‘Mon Shugu’, this fine-textured handmade paper is an integral part of Monpa history.
To make Mon Shugu, the inner fibrous bark of the Shugu Sheng shrub (Daphne papyracea) is dried, boiled with a solution of ash, made into pulp and then cut into sheets of paper. The process of making this paper is entirely organic with no chemical additives. This naturally processed paper possesses…