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border with China, the area is under
constant and heavy surveillance that
adds to their hardship. The influx
of packaged goods and the modern
lifestyle has also had profound
influence on the younger generation of
Changpas, leading them to seek a more
‘desirable’ life outside their traditional
communities. Many of them now work
as potters and horsemen during the
summer season to cater to the needs
of growing adventure tourism in the
region.
The Prized Pashmina
Yet, from these people opens the
journey of the prized Pashmina shawl
that goes through several stages before
reaching the textile lover and customer!
The harsh winter forces the Changra
goats, also known as the Pashmina
goat, to produce a soft and fine inner
line of wool called pashm. It should
be noted that the Changra goats are
different from the critically endangered
Tibetan Antelope (
Pantholops hodgsonii
)
also known as the Chiru, whose wool
is known as Shahtoosh; However, the
production of shawls using Shahtoosh
is banned in India.
The winter fleece of the Changra
goat is purchased from the Changpas
by Ladakhi, Kashmiri and Himachali
middlemen. They have been the first
point of contact for the trade of
Pashmina for hundreds of years. Some
of these middlemen have manipulated
the nomads for a long time. In the last
few years, to safeguard the rights of
these nomads 80 to 85 per cent of the
Pashmina wool is auctioned through a
cooperative society.
The wool then makes its way to a
merchant importer in Kashmir or
Himachal Pradesh. Once the Pashmina
reaches Kashmir, the merchant
importers and the brokers get hold of
it and invite all the retailers and loom
masters or loom owners to buy it. The
wool then changes hands and goes to
Pashmina retailers who own a series of
small shops in and around the valley,
and sell raw or cleaned Pashmina.
In the next step, hand-spinners, who
are mainly women, go to these retailers
and buy the raw wool. Once they
clean it, the process of hand-spinning
starts. The women are so skilled that
they spin Pashmina yarn of 10 to 15
microns. Once the yarn has been spun
it is sold back to the retailers or an
agent or a
kharkhandar
, a loom master,
who owns a series of looms and hires
weavers to weave the shawl.
The yarn may be used in its natural
colour or dyed. The latter is taken
up by a
rangreez
or dyer, who as the
name suggests, specialises in dyeing
Pashmina, cotton and silk yarns. There
are families that have been in this
trade from the last 400 to 500 years.
Until the chemical dye stormed into
the market, they used to make dye out
of vegetables and fruits. For example,
brown colour was extracted from the
walnut shell and pomegranate skin,
and saffron or pink was extracted from
boiling saffron flowers.
Once the Pashmina reaches
Kashmir, the merchant importers
and the brokers get hold of it and
invite all the retailers and loom
masters or loom owners to buy it.
