The Moon Jar of Bhaktapur

The potters of Bhaktapur are famous across the valley, and they have been shaping clay in Pottery Square since before the Malla kings built their palaces. Among the old potters there was a story that only masters told apprentices, and only at night.

Long ago, a master potter named Harilal was asked by the moon goddess Chandra to make her a jar worthy of holding moonlight. All the other potters laughed. Moonlight, they said, cannot be held. It slips through your fingers like water — more so, in fact, because water at least you can drink.

Harilal said nothing. He went home and spent forty days making one jar. He mixed the clay with river silt and fine silver mica. He fired it three times, each time at a different hour. He polished it with his bare hands until it held no shadows anywhere on its surface.

On the night of the full moon in Kartik, he set the jar in the middle of Taumadhi Square and waited. At midnight the moonlight poured into the open mouth and did not come out the other