The Invention of Paper

Full transcript

Have you wondered how paper was invented? Before paper, people wrote on stone, clay, and bamboo. In India, it was palm leaves and birch bark. Around 105 AD in China, a court official named Cai Lun mixed bark, rags, and fishnets with water into a pulp, pressed it thin, and dried it in the sun. The result was a light, smooth sheet perfect for writing. China guarded the secret for centuries. Then paper traveled the Silk Road with traders and monks. Chinese pilgrims like Yijing are believed to have carried it into India. Paper-making took root there around the 11th to 13th centuries, and Kashmir and Sialkot became famous for fine handmade paper. Later, the Mughals turned it into a royal art. From a pile of rags to the pages of India, paper shaped history. If you like this, please subscribe and like my YouTube channel, Backward Clock!