Palpa: Dhaka Cloth, the Karuwa and Tansen

Before Nepal was unified, Palpa was one of the strongest of the small hill kingdoms of the west, ruled by the Sen dynasty from Tansen. Its position mattered: it sat on the trade routes between the plains and the hills, and its rulers had ties with kingdoms on both sides. Mukunda Sen, the best remembered of its kings, ruled in the sixteenth century, and Palpa kept its independence long after other states had fallen to Gorkha. It was finally annexed in 1806.

Under the Rana prime ministers from the mid-nineteenth century, Palpa became an important governorship, and a convenient place to post ambitious relatives far from Kathmandu. Khadga Shumsher Rana was one; in the 1890s he built the riverside palace of Rani Mahal and took part in the discovery of the Ashoka pillar at Lumbini.

Newar traders and craftspeople settled in Tansen over these centuries, and they gave the bazaar its shape: brick houses with carved wooden windows, temples with tiered roofs, and the trades that made Palpa famous. The villages around are mostly Magar, the largest community in Palpa district, along with Brahmin, Chhetri and other groups.

Dhaka is a handloom fabric with dense geometric patterns in several colours, the pattern built up thread by thread as it is woven. In much of Nepal it is simply the cloth of the topi, the brimless cap that is part of men's formal dress, and Palpali dhaka is the most famous name. You will also see it as women's blouses, shawls, bags and cushion covers. The other great centre of dhaka weaving is Terhathum in the far east of Nepal, where Limbu weavers have their own patterns.

In Tansen, dhaka is woven in small workshops and homes in the lanes of the bazaar. Some weavers still use simple handlooms and pick out each colour by hand; others use looms with punched-card attachments that speed up the pattern. Both are local work. Cotton is traditional; acrylic yarn is now common because it is cheaper and the colours are brighter.

Watching a weaver at work is the best way to understand the price difference between a fine topi and a cheap one. A skilled weaver may produce only a short length of complex dhaka in a day. Ask your guide to take you into a workshop, and buy directly where you can.

The karuwa is a heavy, round-bellied water jug with a spout, traditionally made of bell metal, an alloy of copper and tin, though brass versions are common. Families use it for drinking water and in household rituals, and a good karuwa is a standard gift at weddings, often part of what a bride brings to her new home. Karuwa made in Palpa are known across Nepal for their weight, their finish and the ring they give when tapped.

The metalworkers of Tansen cast, hammer and polish them in small workshops, and the noise of hammering is part of the sound of some lanes. A traditional karuwa is heavy for its size; that weight is a sign of the metal content and thickness, and Nepali buyers judge it by hand. If you buy one, ask what alloy it is, whether it is cast or beaten, and how to clean it.

Tansen is a town for walking. Its lanes are stone-paved and steep, and most of the old quarter is closed to cars. Start at the Amar Narayan temple, a three-tiered pagoda built in 1806 by the Gorkhali commander Amar Singh Thapa, with carved roof struts and a stone enclosure. Walk on to the Tansen Durbar, the governor's palace compound, whose great gateway, Baggi Dhoka, is said to have been built tall enough for an elephant and its rider to pass. The palace was burned during the armed conflict in 2006 and has since been rebuilt.

Nearby is Shitalpati, the square at the centre of the bazaar, a meeting point where you can sit and watch the town go by. The Bhagwati temple was built after a Nepali victory over British forces near Butwal in 1815, during the Anglo-Nepal war, and was later restored after the great earthquake of 1934.

Above the town rises Shreenagar Danda, a ridge of pine forest with walking paths. On clear mornings from October to March, the view north takes in the Himalaya from Dhaulagiri to the Annapurnas, with the hills of Palpa folding away below.

Palpa's northern edge is the Kali Gandaki, the great river that rises beyond the Himalaya in Mustang and is sacred to Hindus along its whole course. Two places on its banks make good outings from Tansen.

Rani Mahal is the white palace that Khadga Shumsher Rana built in the 1890s on a bend of the river in memory of his wife, Tej Kumari. Nepalis call it the Taj Mahal of Nepal, for the same reason the comparison is made in Agra: a building raised out of grief. It stands on the river bank below steep hills and is reached by rural road and a walk down. It has been under restoration in recent years, so check current status before you travel.

Ridi Bazaar, where the Ridi Khola joins the Kali Gandaki, is a pilgrim town of ghats and temples around the Rishikesh temple of Vishnu. Local legend says the image changes through the day from a child to a youth to an old man. At Makar Sankranti in mid-January, crowds come to bathe at the confluence, and vendors on the steps sell saligram, the fossil stones from the river bed that are worshipped as Vishnu.

Use the table as a short buying guide. Prices change with quality and season, so treat them as a starting point for conversation rather than fixed rates.

• Ask the seller where the cloth was woven; machine-made dhaka from elsewhere is common
• Carry cash; small workshops rarely take cards
• A karuwa is heavy, so plan your luggage or ask about shipping
• Bargaining is gentle in Tansen; start friendly and settle fairly

Tansen is about 40 km north of Butwal on the Siddhartha Highway, roughly 2.5–3 hours from Lumbini and 5–6 hours from Pokhara. Gautam Buddha International Airport at Bhairahawa is about 65 km away. Most travellers stay one night on the way between Lumbini and Pokhara; two nights let you add Rani Mahal on the Kali Gandaki, a full day by jeep and on foot, or a quieter day on the ridge.

Hotel Srinagar, on the ridge above town, has the best views and gardens; there are simpler hotels in the bazaar. Tansen is cool for most of the year at about 1,350 m, with cold mornings from December to February and heavy rain from June to September. October to April is the best time to come.