Handmade Hemp Backpack - Mandala

A handloom hemp daypack banded in red, cream and deep green, with a cream herringbone front pocket carrying a mandala in full colour: a lotus throne at the centre holding the stacked syllables of the Kalachakra emblem, ringed by eight prayer flag panels in blue, white, red, green and yellow. Padded webbing straps, a top grab handle, a zipped front pocket and an open pocket on each side. The five flag colours are the elements, blue for sky, white for air, red for fire, green for water and yellow for earth, and a string is always hung in that order so the wind can carry the printed prayers out over the valley. The emblem at the centre ties ten syllables into a single monogram, a form carved above doorways and painted on monastery walls from Boudhanath to Mustang. On a bag that goes to work every day it is a quiet thing to carry rather than a loud one. Hemp has grown in the Nepali hills for centuries without irrigation or pesticide. The stalk is retted, hand spun and woven on a handloom, which gives a cloth that starts out rough, softens every time you use it, and gets stronger rather than weaker when it is wet. The pale ground is the fibre in its own colour, not a bleach. Because the cloth is woven and the bag cut and sewn by hand, the stripe placement, the depth of the natural colour and the exact set of the pockets come out a little different every time. Yours will not be identical to the photograph, and that is the point. Ships worldwide from our Vancouver store with live carrier rates at checkout.

Every piece is worked individually, so colour, thickness and finish vary a little from one to the next. That variation is a feature of the craft, not a flaw.