Newari Topi, Black Cotton Cap with Patterned Bands

Newar men of the Kathmandu Valley keep a topi for their own calendar: Mha Puja on the Newar new year, the Yenya processions of Indra Jatra, Bisket Jatra in Bhaktapur, weddings and the feasts of the guthi. The Newar families of Darjeeling and Sikkim carry the same calendar with them, and this cap is cut for those days from the black Newari cotton that also makes the chaubandi cholo our Newari women’s top is sewn from.

The black ground is relieved by bands of colour that run around the crown, small diamonds and zigzags in one pattern and fine dotted stripes in the other, so the cap reads dark from a distance and detailed up close. The crown is interlined to hold the Nepali topi line, the flat top tilts back from the brow, and the cloth has the slightly dry, matte hand of hill cotton rather than the sheen of a printed topi.

Wear it with a daura suruwal, with the Newar tapalan, or over a plain shirt at a family puja; it sits alongside the rest of the rest of the Nepali topi range. Each cap is stitched for Bhutib in the Eastern Himalayan hills.

Questions buyers ask

Is this the black Bhadgaunle topi? No. The Bhadgaunle, or kalo topi, is plain black cloth; this cap is patterned Newari cotton with coloured bands. For a plain black cap, look at our Gorkha topi.

What size is it? One free size that fits adult heads; the firm crown keeps it level without squeezing.

What do Newar men wear it with? With the daura suruwal or the long Newar tapalan shirt on festival days, and over an everyday shirt the rest of the time. For a child or a closer fit, order the free size and give us the head measurement when Bhutib confirms your order, and we tailor-make the cap to that size.