The last hours of the final day of this year are counting down. I wanted to thank you all for following us in our journey improving the lives of people in Nepal and being our customer. It’s been an amazing year and the last day of each year is always a special time to reflect. A lot of things have happened this past year and now on this very last day I’m reflecting on our blessings and like to share some of our highlights of these past 12 months in 2010:

• Launched several new product lines. Including Burberrys and Bamboo Pashminas in different sizes and qualities
• Employed 5 new women in Nepal for our new upcoming Lokta Store in 2011 in Nepal
• Introduced Handmade Lokta Pashmina Gift boxes, made from eco-friendly Lokta paper material.
• Improved our Cashmere Pashminas, with an even finer weave and product quality
• Opened up a special USA and Canada online store to serve our customers in North America even better by shipping from a local distribution point.
• Shipped to almost every continent in the world and and more than 3 dozen countries
• Launched a new Customer Support Desk so we can now even faster and accurately respond to your e-mails.
• Formed several strategic partnerships for our new year to even further positively impact people in Nepal by fighting poverty through business.

I’m excited what the new year will bring. We’ve got an amazing lineup of changes, improvements and new products to bring for you. Stay tuned and don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter to be the first to know of the new product launches and specials / discounts. Thank you all for being a part of my dream, wishing you the best of joy, health and success in the new year!

Luxury Pashmina Gift Boxes

Pashminas are beautiful, but not always the easiest to gift wrap. There’s some creative ways to do it of course, but we’d like to save you the trouble by offering you luxury gift boxes.

These boxes are very special, made out of a papyrus material (exclusive to Nepal) called Lokta. Lokta crafts are made by using the bark of the Lokta Plant that grows in the Himalayan forests at more than 6,500 feet above sea level. Harvesting this plant has no adverse effects on the surrounding ecology because it regenerates after being cut just above the root.

This is a Nepali craft that’s been around since the 12th century, and is still used today by the Nepali government for official documents.

We decided to have Lokta made into attractive gift boxes just for you, giving you an easy wrapping option that makes your Pashmina the perfect give away package right when it comes to your door. We’re offering you five luxurious colors that cater to a variety of artistic tastes.

Now only for 7.50 EURO. Check out our selection here.

November Specials

Howdy!

It’s almost the end of November, holidays are coming up fast and you’re probably still looking for a nice gift to give away. Why not give a beautiful warm Pashmina? There isn’t a better time to give one now as we’re having some amazing specials!

We have some clearance items available, gorgeous 2 color Water Pashminas, Single Color Water Pashminas, Large Cashmere & Silk Blended shawls and even a couple Pure Cashmere stoles. Head over to the clearance section quickly and get yourself or someone a Pashmina for a amazingly low price. Hurry! These specials won’t last long and GONE=GONE!

P.S.: If you want to be one of the first to know about these specials and other unique opportunities, quickly subscribe yourself to our newsletter. (The Newsletter box is on the right side of this page. Or click here).

We’re pretty excited about some recent changes on our website. Not only have we put a major effort into making our product pages smoother so you can quickly view all available colors of a particular Pashmina on just one page. But also with digital colored images you can actually see the real color on the model when clicking on one of the swatches. We’re pretty excited about this new future, and it seems you all love it too. Thanks so much all for your positive feedback, customer testimonials and great appreciation in our business.

2010 has been a difficult year for many of us. Still, we have been able through our Fair-Trade practices to tremendously impact local entrepreneurs in Nepal by keeping them employed in these difficult times. And we have more exiting news coming soon. New product launches, new gift wrapping features and much much more.

Now.. many have waited for this amazing option on our site and here it is. You can now order many of our highly popular Cashmere Pashminas in any size in any color. Really, yes you can! Whether you would like a lime green, bright orange (Go Dutch championship team!) or just a very light but soft pink, we’ve got it. The choice is yours.

Best of all, your Pashmina is going to be custom handmade just for you. Upon your order, a special skilled Pashmina weaver will start working on your unique Pashmina. Delivery time can sometimes go up to about 4 weeks, but it’s definitely worth the wait for a truly unique Pashmina, isn’t it?

Many of our shawls have been shipped to the USA and Canada. Due our success we decided to launch a special USA & Canada store to provide even a better experience for our customers. Even better, all Pashminas are shipped out from our local Grand Rapids, Michigan location. Which means you’ll have your wonderful Pashmina at your door in about 3 days instead of 10.

Go ahead. indulge. Check out our new made to order range. And we’re adding more as we speak. So stay tuned and keep checking our site:

USA & Canada:

http://www.buypashminaonline.com/?cat=30

Europe & Rest of the world:

http://www.royalbhaktapur.com/custom-pashminas/

Burberry Jacquard Pashmina

Things are going well here at Royal Bhaktapur. We’ve got lots of exciting new things coming up soon.  New photoshots coming up shortly, another shipment of new stock in coming in in the next few weeks, with new Burberry pashminas. You asked for it, we got it . Specially for you we’re making a limited edition batch of Burbery Jacquard Pashminas in both 70% Cashmere / 30% Silk blend and even in 100% Pure Cashmere.

Pre-Order yours now to make sure you get yourself one for the colder days coming up. Burberry Pashminas a very popular trendy shawls and will run out quickly. Grab yours here:

Pashmina 70% Cashmere / 30% Silk Jacquard Burberry Scarf – 30x150cm – €64.95 Now: €44.95
http://www.royalbhaktapur.com/70cashmere-30silk-jacquard-burberry-pashmina-scarf.html

Pure Cashmere Jacquard Burberry Stole – 30x150cm – €74.95 Now: €54.95
http://www.royalbhaktapur.com/pure-cashmere-jacquard-burberry-pashmina-scarf.html

So far the new years resolutions for 2010 for updating the blog. There is a lot going on at Royal Bhaktapur. Especially the website is currently having a major overhaul in the system for new improvements, faster performance and higher user friendliness. In the coming days the site might have some flaws, but we’re doing our utmost best to keep this as minimum as possible.
Next month we’re expecting a new shipment with Bamboo Pashmina’s. Made of sustainable Bamboo material with the mix of regular wool. So stay tuned.

In the meanwhile as 2010 has just started, we’re having an interesting sale for our customers. All of our old label stock has to be sold as we’re focusing on our private label. This means great discounts, and a very luxury Pashmina scarf or shawl for a bargain. Sale ends as soon stock runs out. GONE = Gone

Check out the clearance section here.

Note: Don’t forget to register for an account to collect reward points which will give discounts on future purchases

Customer Reviews

We’re excited to announce that we just launched our new Revamped Customer Reviews on our online Store. With many lots of exiting new features, new enhanced security, higher level of moderation processing and more trustworthy reviews.

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.

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.

After our recent project visit to Nepal, we have decided to launch a new range of Pashmina shawls available in our online webstore. All our new made Pashmina shawls are provided with our own Royal Bhaktapur label. Please have a close look when you are viewing our products. These new shawls having our Royal Bhaktapur label added, will ensure you that you are buying a fair trade product. For more information please read our sustainability article on our website.

Specially and just added to our assortment are the Pashmina Jacquard Burberry shawls, made of 70% pure Pashmina wool, and 30% silk. With a size of approximately of 28 x 80 inch, you can wear these shawl on all occasions, but they are especially well suited for the colder winter days.

Next to our new Burberry range, we have a wide range of colors of the 100% Pashmina and the 70/30% Pashmina shawls available in a new size, 12×60 inch. Perfect for daily use and in combination for all kinds of clothing apparel (e.g. suits & dresses).

Please have a look in our online store to view our new products.