Fair Trade from Nepal

Het begon als een leuk project om ervaring op te doen in ondernemen en tegelijkertijd idealen te verwezenlijken. Inmiddels verkoopt het bedrijf van Arcadiaan Radboud Buitenrust Hettema en zijn studerende zoon Niki wereldwijd handgemaakte kwaliteitsproducten uit Nepal. ‘Royal Bhaktapur’ heet het familiebedrijf. Vader en zoon runnen het in hun vrije tijd. Het is hun droom om er - als het even kan - groot mee te worden.

Official website: http://www.arcadis.nl

Transform the life of others and you”ll be transformed. Together we can work on a concept to end poverty and grow a sustainable development. Royal Bhaktapur, live from the conference in Muskegon, Michigan, United States. Stay tuned!

We’re getting this question quite often. Actually the ways you can wear your Pashmina are endless. Depending on your clothing style, let it be a regular shirt, a suit, a dress or jacket there are always different ways to wear your Pashmina in an elegant style.

Text describes something briefly. A photo says more than thousands words. A short video summarizes it all. Watch this youtube video made by Travelista Fashion which shows you a few examples how to wear a Pashmina of 70×200cm.

Life has been like a roller-coaster these last years. And the ride is far from over. It has been a long time since I’ve been able to update the blog. Lots and lots of things happened in the time since the last post on this blog. But from now on I hope to keep the blog updated with interesting articles about Pashminas, Cashmere, handicrafts, other products from Nepal and news items. And of course what is going on at Royal Bhaktapur.

Royal Bhaktapur has been growing, and fast! When it started in 2005 from a simple project idea next to my studies of International Business and Management Studies (IBMS) it soon became clear that this wasn’t going to be just a project, there was a mission behind it. For me the main goal was gaining more experience in business and entrepreneurship while at the same time being able to start making a difference by helping people getting a fair income and making their lives better in Nepal.
The company has given me many new insides, unique experiences and pleasure. Although entrepreneurship is an extremely challenging job it gives a lot of work too! Working sometimes up to 80 hours a week isn’t an exception. And at the same time you’re having a full time study next to it. Sounds almost impossible, but if you can manage to have a good planning it is manageable.

Most of the people are actually still thinking I’m in the Netherlands. Actually thats not really true anymore as I haven’t been there for almost a full year now! Ah well just a quick stopover of 4 days in the Netherlands, and another 4 days in Germany and Austria. Thats the perfect thing about my job, being able to work and run the business from simply anywhere in the world with a phone, notebook and internet connection.
Only you’re not always being able to meet your clients in person, which is a disadvantage. But therefore you have an excellent team behind you who can take over the necessary tasks.

I just came back from a semester study abroad in the United States at Calvin College. It was an amazing semester. Not only interesting to see how business in America goes but also researching companies like Gentex, SteelCase, Herman Miller was an unique opportunity. The U.S. has been a life changing experience for me in many ways. And now again I’m experiencing another life changing experience by working at CHAC Technology in Wenzhou, China. Especially with the Olympics in Beijing coming up, its a blessing to be here. China is absolutely an unique country, with many different sides. Last week I got the unique privilege with Royal Bhaktapur to visit the worlds biggest trade exhibition in Guangzhou, the Canton Fair. Suppliers of all over the world are here to show their products, exchange business contacts and get new contracts. Surprisingly there were many manufactures from inner Mongolia offering Cashmere and Pashmina shawls. However not handmade but produced in mass quantities by heavy machinery. Although from the outside these shawls were looking pretty similar to the real Pashminas, there were still some important differences to take into consideration. In the next posts I will got more in depth about the visit at the Canton Fair and these machine produced Pashminas.

At the moment I’m working with my designer Padraic on a complete new website. Yes, Royal Bhaktapur is going to get another make over.
With all the comments and feedback we got from our customers these last two years we’ve been able to keep improving our website on every detail. And this new website is going to be something. I’m really excited, and hope you are going to be excited too with a complete new shopping experience at our site. If everything goes well we hope to have everything finished by the end of next month.

We are busy trying to make a good list of charities to support in the coming years. Main charities will include to give children a future by sending them to school and fighting poverty. If you have suggestions for other charities, feel free to let us know.

As our company activities are focussed on the sale of Pashmina shawls, we have planned a visit to a Pashmina weaving center.
Our local man is Shree Ram. He holds his office in the centre of Bhaktapur. When we arrive there, he welcomes us in his office cum atelier, here part of the activities take place. Here, the Pashmina shawls are packed, sealed and prepared for transport.
After drinking a cup of traditional milk-tea, we discuss the making of Pashmina shawls and drive to weaving centre. The weaving center is located on the Bhaktapur-Kathmandu road.
All machines needed for the making of shawls are present here. The basic materials, the woolen threads are delivered on rolls, thereafter the treads are bundled to the needed thinness. The bundled threads are dyed for colored weaving or woven with natural thread and dyed afterwards. Threads of cotton, wool and silk are dyed separately and have different dying procedures.
The machines used here are powered by electricity. They are copies of the old English models from pre-Industrial Revolution. These techniques have been shipped to India and has been used almost unchanged till date.
The smaller weaving equipment is made from wood. For the different seizes of cloth the machines range from small to bigger size.
After our visit we return to Bhaktapur, were shown a selection of different Pashmina shawls. Unfortunately, the Jacquard Pashmnina shawls have been taken out of production. The competition by polyester Jacquard shawls was too high. From a distance they can be easily mistaken for a Pashmina Jacquard. The production of Jacquard Pashmina shawls will only be restarted on special request.
From now onwards we will market most of our shawls our shawls with the Royal Bhaktapur label. We will guarantee you no involvement of child labor and a fair trade product.
The following shawls are available with Royal Bhaktapur label:
•    100% Pashmina wool;
•    70 % Pashmina wool and 30% silk;
•    70 % Pashmina wool en 30 % silk, Jacquard Burberry;
•    Water Pashmina wool 90% Pashmina, 10% silk.