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The Kashmir Timeline
The Kashmir Shawl photograph
1 of 6 photographs

Photo: Jainamishra · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Flourished from the 15th centurySrinagar and across the Valley

The textile that made Kashmir famous around the world.

Kashmir shawls are woven from pashm, the soft underfleece of mountain goats from Ladakh and the Tibetan plateau. The finest kani shawls are woven with dozens of small wooden bobbins that carry the coloured threads, and a single shawl can take months or years. Others are richly embroidered with needlework called sozni.

Facts

  • The curved teardrop motif of Kashmir shawls became known in the West as paisley, after the Scottish town that made imitations.
  • In the 18th and 19th centuries Kashmir shawls were highly prized luxuries in Europe.
  • Kani shawls carry a geographical indication tag, a legal mark of their origin.

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