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Indic Handlooms
File № 02 Silk-cotton GI 2005 (Dec 9, No. 46)

Pashmina.

Pashmina · पश्मीना
Definition

Hand-spun cashmere wool from the Changthangi goat — the highest, finest, and warmest of India's textile traditions, woven on Srinagar's pit looms.

Town Srinagar
State Jammu & Kashmir
River Jhelum
First woven 15th c.
GI status GI 2005 (Dec 9, No. 46)
Active weavers ~50,000 (with spinners + dyers)
Photo: Pashminu · CC BY-SA 4.0 (via Wikimedia)

Hand-spun cashmere wool from the Changthangi goat — the highest, finest, and warmest of India's textile traditions, woven on Srinagar's pit looms.

01 Section 01 · Origin

Wool from the high Himalayas.

True pashmina is the wool of the Changthangi goat, raised by the nomadic Changpa pastoralists of Ladakh at altitudes above 13,000 feet. The undercoat — combed (never sheared) from each goat in spring — is sent down to Srinagar in Kashmir, where master spinners hand-spin it on a takli spindle into a yarn fine enough to pass through a ring.

Kashmir Pashmina received its GI tag in 2008 (No. 46), establishing strict protection: only shawls hand-spun and hand-woven in the J&K cluster carry the certification.

02 Section 02 · Technique

Hand-spun, hand-woven, hand-embroidered.

Authentic Kashmiri pashmina goes through three artisan stages: hand-spinning on the takli (1 weaver, ~30 days), hand-weaving on a pit loom (1 weaver, ~25 days), and, optionally, embroidery — sozni (fine satin-stitch) or kani (woven motifs using small wooden bobbins).

A plain pashmina shawl takes 4–6 months from goat to finished cloth. An intricately sozni-embroidered or kani-woven shawl can take 18 months to 5 years.

03 In-store authenticity

How to spot a real one.

Field check · five checks
  1. 01 Ring test A real pashmina shawl passes through a ring with no effort. Polyester or wool-blend "pashmina" catches.
  2. 02 Burn test (single fibre) Pluck a single fibre and burn — pure pashmina burns slowly with the smell of singed hair and leaves powdery ash. Polyester melts to plastic.
  3. 03 GI tag and ID number Every certified Kashmir Pashmina carries a holographic GI tag with a unique ID, traceable via the J&K Handicrafts Department.
  4. 04 Hand-spun weave Look at the cloth under bright light — handspun pashmina has tiny natural irregularities. Machine-spun yarn is perfectly uniform.
  5. 05 Price floor Real Kashmir Pashmina starts at ₹15,000 for plain plain weave; sozni and kani embroidered shawls run into lakhs. Anything below ₹5,000 is not authentic pashmina.
04 Care & storage

Living with it.

Dry-clean rarely
Use a wool-specialist dry cleaner once every few years. Most plain shawls only need airing.
Air in shade
Sun-air monthly to keep mothproof. Direct sun darkens the natural undyed cream.
Mothballs, separated
Store with cedar blocks or natural mothballs, kept in a separate sachet so the chemicals don't touch the wool.
Refold occasionally
Refold along a different line every 6 months to prevent fold-crack in the fine yarn.