FOR ARTICLE WITH PHOTOS PLEASE VISIT MY BLOG KALHANA BULLETIN: neterraina.blogspot The Kashmiri Shawls – artistic excellence in fabric and design The world famous Kashmiri shawls are exotic and the most acclaimed of the Valley’s handicrafts as an epitome of artistic excellence. These are extremely refined in variety of colours, shades and designs which earned it the name and identity. These shawls come from three different fibers made of wool, Pashmina and ‘Shahtosh’. The super fineness of wool, Pashmina and ‘Shahtosh’ has pushed away the three cloths from one another in price line and cannot match again. The woolen shawl can be placed in the modest budget, the Pashmina shawl comparatively costly one in the middle range and the ‘Shahtosh’ a very choosy, refined and highly priced product rather unaffordable beyond once in one’s life time, if purchased earlier. ‘Raffal’ -The Woolen The woolen shawls with embroidery work are popular enough in the country possibly due to the ‘Kashmir tag and touch in a moderate price range despite the types in quality in workmanship and wool. The wool woven cloth especially the handmade is called as ‘Raffal’ in Kashmiri parlance earlier used to be made up of the pure wool is a mixture of both where these blends contains cotton or cashmilon these days. Many kinds of embroidery work needled on shawls like ‘sozni’ or needlework which is generally done in a panel along the sides of the shawl. Motifs, usually abstract designs or stylized paisleys and flowers are worked in one or two, occasionally three colours, all subdued. The stitch employed is not unlike stem stitch, and only the outline of the design is embroidered. Sozni is often done so skillfully that the motif appears on both sides of the shawl, each side having a different colour way. The workmanship and amount of embroidery work determines the value which has a direct bearing on the cost. Another type of needle embroidery is popularly known as ‘papier mache’ work because of the design and the style in which it is executed. This is done either in broad panels on both sides of the breadth of the shawl or covering the entire surface of the stole. Flowers and leaves are worked in satin stitch in bright colours such as those of ‘papier mache’ and each motif is then outlined in black. A third type of embroidery is ‘ari’ or hook embroidery where the motifs are the well-known flower design finely worked in concentric of chain stitch. Pashmina Pashmina is unmistakable for its softness. The yarn is spun from the hair of the ibex found at 14,000 ft above sea level. Although pure Pashmina is expensive, the cost is at times brought down by blending it with rabbit fur or wool. It is on Pashmina shawls that Kashmiris most exquisite embroidery is worked, sometimes covering the entire surface, earning it the name of ‘jamawar’. The ‘jamawar’ shawl can by virtue of the embroidery reasonably increase its value threefold. The ‘Jamwar’ shawls look same on either side. All Pashmina shawls, however, cannot afford such lavish embroidery– some are embroidered on a narrow panel bordering the four sides of a shawl, others in narrow strips running diagonally through the shawl. A second, less frequently seen weave, done only on Pashmina, covers the surface with tiny lozenge shaped squares, earning it the delightful name of ‘chashme bulbul’ or eye of the bulbul. As this weave is a masterpiece of the weaver’s art and it is normally not embroidered upon. The craft of weaving Pashmina thrived in Kashmir on imports of Pashmina wool into Ladakh from Tibet, Basoli in Kathua district of Jammu also used to be an important centre of Pashmina weaving as it lay on the route of merchants travelling from Tibet via Kullu. Pashmina being the undercoat of goat – a variety of Caprahircus – living at high altitudes, is one of the finest and softest animal fibers used in the textile industry. In 1954 -56 the import of Pashmina from Tibet to India was roughly around 1,20,000 to 2,00,000 kgs against price ranging between Rs. 10 to Rs. 50 per lb. depending upon its quality and admixture of hair. There are many speculations made by historians of art about the origin of the Kashmir shawl. Some of them are disposed to ascribing its origin to the distant past from the time of the Mahabharta. But some place a different story claiming that Mirza Hyder Tuglat, the Central Asian adventurer, who occupied Kashmir in 1541 AD was the originator of the Kashmiri Shawls. It seems a noble of his court and Naghiz Beg who procured the raw wool (Pashm) from a special Tibetan goat. They cleaned, spun and woven it into roll of ½ yard wide and presented it to the Mirza. The Pashmina goats are reared in the high altitude region of Chanthang in Ladakh at an elevation of 12,000 to 14,000 ft. The annual yield, including some imports is about 20,000 kgs which has some content of hair ranging from 15 to 40 per cent. After de-hairing, sorting and spinning wastages, the average yield of yarn from 1 kg is only 33 to 48 per cent depending upon the grade of the raw Pashmina. To revive the dying craft of Pashmina weaving, the Pashmina centre was established in 1955 in Basoli with about 500 spinners. This was followed by a small project of Pashmina weaving in the town as the raw Pashmina used to be transported from Ladakh to Srinagar. It is working with these delicate materials that the skills of Kashmiri spinners have reached its peak. In certain families of Kashmir valley it has been passed down from mother to daughter for generations. The raw wool is full of dust and other impurities. Each small tuft of the pashm is leased out and the hair removed one by one. To rid the pashm of its slight natural oiliness it is thoroughly mixed with flour of soaked and ground rice. It is applied damp and rubbed in well and the Pashm is then teased out once more tuft by tuft on a small wooden comb set vertically on a stand. It is then spun on charkha locally called ‘Yender’ where the yarn is doubled and twisted and then wound into hanks on ‘Pretu’. The Pashmina weaving is done on a small sized fly shuttle loom. Pashmina shawls have always had the most intricate designs but today it is woven plain twill and left to its natural colours. Pashmina is also exported to foreign countries with the bulk of which goes to the USA, Middle East and other European countries. ‘ Shahtosh’ ‘Shahtosh’, the legendary ‘ring shawl’ is incredible for its lightness, softness and gracefulness. The ring shawl can ordinarily pass through signet ring is real pride of Kashmiri weavers. These are exclusively hand woven from ‘Shahtosh’, the wool known for its warmth, delicacy and silkiness. These shawls are renowned from ancient times for their extraordinary softness and warmth expressing an eloquent testimony of the people’s patience, skill and love for beauty. The astronomical price it commands in the market is due to the scarcity of the raw material, today. High in the plateaux of Tibet and the eastern part of Ladakh, at an altitude of above 5,000 metres, roam Pantholops Hodgsoni, or Tibetan antelope. While grazing, a few strands of the downy hair from the throat or shed and it is these which are painstakingly collected until there are enough for a shawl. Yarn is a spin either from ‘Shahtosh’ alone, or with Pashmina, bringing down the cost to some extent. In the case of pure ‘Shahtosh’ too, there are many qualities – the yarn can be spin so skillfully as to resemble a strand of silk. Not only are shawls made from such fine yarn extremely expensive, they can only be loosely woven and are too flimsy for embroidery to be done on them. Unlike woolen and Pashmina shawls ‘Shahtosh’ has seldom died- that would be rather like dying gold. Its natural colour is mousy brown, and it is, at the most, sparsely embroidered. ‘Shahtosh’, the king of the woolens, on the other hand is unbelievably light and yet warm enough. It is made from the wool obtained from the lower par of the neck of a rare type of Tibetan Antelop which is found at an altitude of 14,000 ft or more. There has been a further set back to this trade following the death thousands of Changra goats in Changthang area of Ladakh resulting further shortage of the Pashmina wool cut short the annual requirement of the state to half which generally stands at about 40,000 kgs annually. Quality Standard The Pashmina from Ladakh, considered to be one of the finest of wools, qualitatively the highest one in diameter and length, as it is said that lesser the diameter better the quality of Pashmina which is roughly 9 to 11 microns in comparison to the China’s 12 to 16 micron thus restricts the Chinese Pashmina to cross ahead of the Pashmina from Leh, Indian in quality. There are currently restrictions on the trade of ‘Shahtosh’ imposed by the Government following the international pressure that the Tibetan antilope, ‘chiru’, a special type of sheep producing Pashmina wool is being killed by people in this trade. The committee, group of experts constituted by the MHA to look into the possibilities of lifting the ban and decide about the fate of the 30,000 odd Kashmiri artisans and other people with their families in this trade. The recommendations of the committee report submitted to the MHA though not known but the final decision on the matter requires to be taken at the earliest since the committee and the previous successive state Governments have asked for lifting the ban on Shahtosh trade in the state. The Chamber of Commerce and Industries, Kashmir has refuted the charge leveled by the international community that the Tibetan antilope, ‘chiru’ is killed by the people involved with the trade. The CCI, Kashmir, on the contrary, claim that the traders arrange the animals shed wool from bushes and rocks at the end of the harsh Tibetan winter is collected by the Tibetan nomads and supply the molted wool to weavers in Kashmir. In view of the existing ban there have been complaints of fake handicrafts coming in the market causing a lot of defame to Pashmina trade in foreign countries. Unfortunately, sometime back in one of the instances the quality analysis or tests of a shawl revealed that out of 450 fibers, about 125 fibers were of Pashmina with remaining 325 fibers were woolen. The experts have opinioned that the Government needs to initiate necessary measures to stop the menace of fake Pashmina since it is beyond one’s reach to differentiate between the fake and genuine Pashmina. This has alarmed one and all for an urgent action to save the states heritage of the Pashmina. However, this invites for some strict measures to protect the counterfeiting of Kashmiri Pashmina since the Economic Survey 2012-13 tabled in State Assembly reveal that the export figures of handicraft goods have recorded a healthy jump from Rs. 1004.1 crore in 2010-11 to Rs. 1643.37 crore in 2011-12 and all the Central, state Government, the trader community of the Pashmina trade have to initiate necessary steps to stop the menace of malpractices taking place therein the trade.
Posted on: Tue, 06 Aug 2013 06:25:24 +0000
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