The earliest surviving lokta paper document appears in Nepal’s National Archives in Kathmandu in the form of the sacred Buddhist text, the Karanya Buha Sutra. The Karanya Buha Sutra was written in Lichchhavi script and block printed on lokta paper and is estimated to be between 1,000 and 1,900 years old. Lokta paper has been produced using similar methods for centuries and that tradition continues today
Nepalese handmade lokta paper is made from the fibrous inner bark of high elevation evergreen shrubs primarily from two species of Daphne bholua and Daphne papyracea, known collectively and vernacularly as lokta bushes. Lokta bushes proliferate in open clusters or colonies on the southern slopes of Nepal’s Himalayan forests between 1,600 and 4,000 m (5,250–13,000 ft)
Source: HandMadeHappiness.ca
