Where can I buy the best silver in Kathmandu?

DPPL trades from the 5th floor of Sasa Complex on New Road, Kathmandu — Nepal's precious-metal market. We deal only in 999 fine silver: bars of 100 g, 500 g and 1 kg, and loose silver grain sold by weight. Every piece is weighed on calibrated scales in front of you and leaves with a full invoice, and we buy back documented metal at the published purchase rate.

What is today's silver price in Nepal?

The current silver rate for Kathmandu — sale and purchase, per tola and per 10 grams — is published on dppl.com.np and updated each morning from the official Kathmandu bullion market reference. One tola is 11.6638 grams.

Is DPPL a silver importer or a retail dealer?

Both. DPPL supplies investment-grade 999 fine silver bars and industrial silver grain to households, jewellers and businesses in Kathmandu, in quantities from 100 grams upward. Call 01-5915052 for larger commercial orders.

What does 999 fine silver mean?

999 fine means 99.9% pure silver, the standard for investment bullion and higher than sterling silver at 92.5%. Every DPPL bar is stamped with its fineness, weight and the DPPL diamond mark.

How much do making charges add to a silver bar?

The published rate is the price of the metal by weight. Bars also carry a making charge for refining, casting, stamping and packaging, added at the counter and itemised on the invoice. Making charges are lower per gram on larger bars.

Does DPPL buy silver back?

Yes. DPPL buys back bullion it has sold at the purchase rate published on the day of the buy-back. Bring the metal and the original invoice; the bar is weighed and checked, and payment is made at the counter.

What are DPPL's opening hours and location?

DPPL is open Sunday to Friday, 10:30 to 18:00 NPT, closed Saturdays and public holidays, at 5th Floor, Sasa Complex, New Road, Kathmandu 44600. Call 01-5915052 or WhatsApp +977 980-561-7932.

Silver in Nepal: from Malla mohars to New Road

History20 June 20268 min readDiamond Palace Pvt. Ltd.

Coinage in the Kathmandu Valley goes back to the Lichhavi period, well over a thousand years ago, and the Valley has been a place where metal was weighed, struck and traded ever since. But the chapter that matters most for understanding silver in Nepal begins with the Malla kings.

The mohar and the Tibet trade

The three Malla kingdoms of the Valley — Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur — each minted silver coins known as mohars. These were beautiful objects, struck with intricate devices, and they were not only for domestic use. Nepal held a privileged position on the trade route between India and Tibet, and Tibet had silver but no minting tradition of its own. Nepali workshops minted coin for Tibet, receiving bullion and returning struck money.

This arrangement was extraordinarily profitable, and like the Roman denarius, it eventually foundered on the temptation of debasement. Disputes over the purity of the coins supplied to Tibet, and over the exchange rate between old and new issues, soured relations badly. The quarrel contributed directly to war between Nepal and Tibet in the late eighteenth century. It is a striking historical fact that the fineness of a silver coin was, quite literally, a cause of war in the Himalaya.

The silversmiths of the Valley

Alongside coinage ran a craft tradition that made the Valley famous across Asia. Newar metalworkers developed repoussé — hammering sheet metal from the reverse to raise a design — to a level few cultures have matched. Their work covers temple doors, torana arches above shrine entrances, ritual vessels, butter lamps, and the ornaments that dress deity statues.

The reputation travelled. Newar artisans were invited to Tibet and beyond; the tradition of the Valley shaped Himalayan religious art far outside Nepal's borders. When you see silver work on a temple in Kathmandu today, you are looking at a living craft, not a museum piece — the workshops are still there, and they still buy their metal by weight.

Silver in the household

Beyond coin and temple, silver wove itself into ordinary Nepali life in ways that have not faded. A child receives silver anklets and bangles. Offerings to deities are made on silver plates. A daughter's dowry traditionally includes silver alongside gold, because silver is the portion that can be divided, sold in part, or converted in an emergency without dismantling the family's gold.

This is a practical logic, not just a sentimental one. Gold is the store of wealth; silver is the store of wealth you can actually break into. A household that needs a modest sum can sell a few tolas of silver. Selling gold is a larger, more reluctant decision.

How New Road became the market

The great earthquake of 1990 B.S. — 1934 — devastated Kathmandu. In the rebuilding that followed, a new commercial street was laid out and named Juddha Sadak after the Rana prime minister of the day, though everyone calls it New Road. It was built wide and modern by the standards of the time, and it drew the trades that needed shopfronts, footfall and neighbours: cloth, watches, electronics, and above all gold and silver.

A precious-metal market works best when dealers are packed together. A customer can compare, a dealer can source from the shop next door, and the day's rate is established by everyone watching everyone else. That is what New Road became, and it is why the daily rate for the whole country is effectively set in a few hundred metres of one street.

The tola, and why it survives

Nepal prices precious metal in tolas. One tola is 11.6638 grams — a unit inherited from the subcontinent's traditional weight system, and one that has outlived every attempt at metrication in this trade. Rates are quoted per tola and per ten grams side by side, and both are in daily use: older customers think in tolas, younger ones in grams, and the counter converts without blinking.

It is worth appreciating what this continuity means. A customer buying a stamped bar on New Road today, weighed in tolas, priced against a rate shouted between neighbouring shops, is taking part in one of the oldest continuously functioning markets in Nepal. The bar is modern; the transaction is not.

DPPL trades at 5th Floor, Sasa Complex, New Road — in the middle of that market. We publish the day's sale and purchase rates on this site each morning.

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