The growing use of electric lights to decorate homes during Tihar is eating into demand for traditional clay oil lamps, leaving potters from Bhaktapur’s Prajapati community worried about the future of their ancestral trade.
Potters who once worked day and night to meet demand in the run-up to the festival say sales have declined in recent years. With fewer customers buying their lamps, some are even considering switching to other occupations.
Sajan Prajapati, who has continued his family’s pottery business for the past 20 years, fears the tradition of making clay lamps could disappear with his generation.
“We were much busier 10 years ago. Demand has fallen significantly since then. Around 100 families were involved in making clay lamps at the time, and we struggled to keep up with orders,” he said. “But demand has declined as electric lights from India and other countries have become more widely available.”
Potters say changing festive traditions and the growing preference for electric decorations over traditional clay lamps have put their generations-old occupation at risk.
