Ladakh’s Pashmina and Yak Wool: Recognition and Revival of Local Wool as well as Craft industry through the Looms of Ladakh Cooperative
By
Abhilasha Bahuguna and G Prasanna Ramaswamy
Pashmina: Ladakh’s Gold
Pashmina, the enigmatic fiber, has had an overwhelming influence on Ladakh in medieval and recent times. It was the desire to monopolize the lucrative fiber trade that induced the Jammu-based Dogra kings to annex this region. One of the finest in the world, the pashmina fiber averages 12–15 microns in thickness (Wani & Wani, 2007), 55 mm –60 mm in length (Shakyawar, Raja, Kumar, Pareek, & Wani, 2013), and are produced by a goat variety (Capra hircus) native to the high altitude pasturelands of Changthang in Ladakh and Tibet. Globally the major producers are China (70%), Mongolia (20%), Iran, Afghanistan, Nepal, and India. India accounts for less than 1 percent of the pashmina produced in the world (Wani & Wani, 2007), but its production is among the finest of them all.
The pashmina goats are reared mainly by the Changpas, an ethnic group of pastoralist nomads, at altitudes of 4,000 m –5,000 m in the Trans-Himalayas. Goat, sheep, and yak husbandry is the main occupation for the majority of the Changpas. The pastoral activities involved in the rearing of the Changra goats constitute a significant proportion of the culture and economy of the Changpa community to this day. The current pashmina production in the Indian Changthang is estimated to be between 37,000 to 50,000 kg annually. The Pashmina industry in Ladakh remains a raw material trade. Currently, the All Changthang Pashmina Growers Cooperative Marketing Society (ACPGCMS) and middlemen procure the pashmina. All the pashmina procured by the middlemen leaves Ladakh without any value addition. Currently, less than 1,200 kg of raw pashmina is made into finished products within Ladakh. The total value of the pashmina after being woven into shawls and other finished products is ~ 200 crores (Shakyawar et al., 2013). The contribution of pashmina to the local economy through the direct sale of raw cashmere is estimated to be ~ 10–12 crores and that of wool to be ~ 2.50 crores. On average, goat rearing families’ annual income from their flocks of pashmina is INR ~19,000. (Wani, Wani, & Yusuf, 2009). A good quality pashmina shawl can easily fetch a price of INR ~ 50,000 in the market. Major centers of pashmina production are in the Durbuk and Nyoma subdivisions of Leh district which together make up for 90 percent of the total pashmina production of 45–50 metric tonnes. Sheep rearing is more dispersed and spatially scattered in the district but still, these two subdivisions are major players in this sector. Yak is the other important fiber-producing species, and there are around 18,000 yaks in the Leh district, mostly in Durbuk and Nyoma (Sheep Husbandry Department, 2016). The average pashmina production per goat in the traditional belt is around 130–350 g per animal (Wani et al., 2009), and wool yield around 1–1.5 kg per sheep per year.
Traditionally, the Changpas were self-sufficient. Their livestock provided them with their necessities. In recent times, however, the influx of tourism, defense investment, and allied government services have altered their motivations bringing about significant changes in their self-sufficient lifestyles. To many of the Changpas who have been exposed to the changes around them, their way of life seems unnecessarily harsh and unrewarding. They have to spend most of their time in the extremely harsh conditions of Ladakh’s highland valleys. Their efforts, however, seem insufficient to assure them a decent living, prompting them to question the wisdom of continuing with their traditional lifestyles. A tour guide in Leh, an army porter, or the owner of a shack along one of Ladakh’s highways seem to have much more to show for their efforts compared to the Changpa herder. Many Changpa families have abandoned their villages and lifestyles to settle in Leh and other urban areas. In some cases, entire villages, have relocated, giving up their pristine wind-swept valleys for the crowded and cramped up spaces of Leh city. At this rate, the Changpa way of life will soon be a memory, conjuring up fond recollections but nevertheless discarded as impractical and outmoded. Moreover, the Changpas are extremely important to the well-being of Ladakh’s highland ecosystems and their loss will be nothing short of a disaster. The Changpas are one of the main reasons for Ladakh’s wide-open spaces being left alone by miners and the armed forces. They are also invaluable as the sentinels of our borders, constantly patrolling and zealously guarding their grazing lands against encroachments by the Chinese. Without them, inevitably the Highlands will succumb to the inexorable march of ‘modern development’. And as always, Pashmina holds the key to the solution!
The Looms of Ladakh Cooperative
Looms of Ladakh is a collaborative effort by rural Ladakhi women-artisans. It aims to make the world recognize Ladakh as the home for some of the finest woolen garments in the world. It was conceived as a farm-to-fashion initiative, committed to extending due recognition, and securing just remuneration to Ladakh’s pashmina, yak, and sheep wool rearing communities and its artisans. Weaving and cloth production in Ladakh has traditionally been carried out for utilitarian purposes. In Eastern Ladakh, women traditionally wove fabrics with yak wool for the Shepherd tents called ‘rebo’ and also saddles for their horses, all on their homemade backstrap looms, while the men were away grazing the herds. They also wove sheep wool rugs for their homes. Regions near Leh saw men with portable looms traveling from village to village in the past. They wove nambu, the sheep wool cloth for their traditional dress, the ubiquitous ‘goncha’ and received sheep wool yarn and essential commodities as part of a barter system.
The Cooperative started with simple knitted and woven woolen garments but has now progressed to designing and producing high-end designer wear through constant skill up-gradation and association with noted textile designers and design schools. The common misunderstanding- that Ladakhi textile artisans can only produce practical-yet-coarse sheep wool fabric is being dispelled through the efforts of the cooperative, which is now producing tailored designer clothes out of different wools and the extremely fine and valuable Pashmina fiber. In the process, the cooperative has also marketed many of the local products by infusing them with contemporary design and practical utility for the consumer, who is usually from climatically milder regions. For example, Looms of Ladakh Women Cooperative (LLWC) has worked with traditional products like the local rug (tsugdan) in natural colors and table runners with local sheep wool. The cooperative is working to find a balance between nature, culture, and economy. The cooperative also has to realize sustainable livelihoods goals for the herders, spinners, knitters, weaver self-help groups who are their member-owners.
The co-operative facilitates women's empowerment by encouraging unemployed women from remote villages to build on their existing skills and create organic and designer products. The women artisans, who are also the owners of the cooperative, hope to sustain themselves financially in the near future and increase their dwindling bargaining power and political participation in Ladakh through their exemplary leadership and stewardship of the industry. The Cooperative has raised more than Crore rupees in revenues through sales since its inception in 2017. This is remarkable because when we started, most of the largely illiterate women were engaged as laborers in road construction projects along Ladakh’s border with Tibet.
A Truly Sustainable Effort
An initiative to add value to the indigenous materials locally, the co-operative is equipped with resources and an organizational structure to create a value chain and generate income through the skills of weaving and knitting. Looms of Ladakh respects the ways of life of its artisans. It is working towards realizing a production cycle in harmony with local culture and community beliefs. The cooperative aims to provide an alternative to un-skilled manual labour, to the women in the far-flung highlands of Ladakh. It also has consciously adopted a policy of championing the causes of Slow-Fashion and sustainable growth. The Cooperative is part of a team, comprising other institutions in Ladakh and the Nature Conservation Foundation, for a project aimed at conserving the traditional lifestyles of Ladakh’s herding communities and through them, protecting their fragile ecosystems and Ladakh’s iconic mega-fauna like the Snow Leopard.
The Cooperative also understands that maintaining a balanced production pattern is an important aspect of the slow and sustainable fashion movement that it believes in. Aspects of sustainability need to be factored into the rearing of pashmina goats, yak herds, and local sheep for the well-being of wild flora and fauna of Ladakh. Since the beginning, the Cooperative has promoted production in all three woolen fibers - local sheep wool (nambu), yak wool (khulu), and a pashmina.
It has encouraged the local population to promote all these fibers equally- so that none of the species is favored over the other for rearing. The Cooperative aims to bring all the villages and producer groups of Ladakh under one umbrella brand. Increased local competition between independent retailers will lower the price of pashmina products which they shall compensate with an increase in the volume of pashmina products. The outcome of machine-spun pashmina yarn might be the same. These will put pressure on the local ecology through ever-increasing herd sizes and inevitable conflicts with the wild predator species. Most importantly, it might not help spread the fruits of the Pashmina Wool Economy fairly and evenly but concentrate it in a few hands. We believe that while Pashmina deserves to be a niche product, the other local woolen fibers and textile crafts need to be equally refined and promoted.
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Kindling Entrepreneurship and Fostering Participative Decision Making“People are now relating Pashmina with Ladakh. Earlier only a handful was aware of the production of pashma here. We aim to establish a small cottage industry in Ladakh and increase the value of pashmina, yak wool, and sheep wool by making them into finished products.” - Mrs.Shakila Bano, Cashier (2020-2023), Looms of Ladakh Cooperative
“ In my village Chushul, we did not know the value of Pashmina. In the pashmina trade, most of the value is locked up at a higher level. The dehaired pashmina price was Rs7000 per kg in 2016. Today it has increased by Rs.3000. We are trying to add value to the raw material in Ladakh itself.” - Tsering Youdol, Product Officer Changthang (2020-2023), Looms of Ladakh Cooperative “To make this work grow we will collectively make efforts. This is our life and will make us grow.” - Mrs. Lobzang Lamo, CEO and Design Officer (2020-2023), Looms of Ladakh Cooperative. “ Looms of Ladakh is working on building its Handspun yarn bank where loaned raw material can be collected by self-help groups from it and Handspun into the different grade yarns that Looms of Ladakh has developed. These ready Yarns will be a great resource for designer’s local and outside, herders who will see ACPGS picking their raw material on time and Looms of Ladakh themselves, as value addition will take less production time.” - A herder who does not wish to be named and has the presence of both cooperatives in his village. He submits raw pashmina to ACPGS and his wife works at Looms of Ladakh Women Cooperative centre. Realizing Shared Dreams and Going internationalOn 2nd November 2018, Looms of Ladakh Cooperative, Himadri of Handloom and Handicraft Development Council, Government of Uttarakhand, and Bhuttico Weavers of Kullu Himachal Pradesh came together to breathe life into the idea of a National Wool Brand Cooperative. A fashion show titled WoolSpell was hosted by the High Commission of India in London in collaboration with the State Bank of India, Air India, and the London chapter of the Confederation of Indian Industries. The event was curated by designer Ankit Kajla and Abhilasha. The aim was to inspire sustainable woolen creations and revive the dying art of hand-spindle spinning and weaving practices of the Himalayas. A luxury woolen collection was brought together by the different artisans under the able guidance and design leadership of Mr. Ankit Kajla. The idea was rooted in the philosophy of ‘Sarvodaya’. It aimed to demonstrate the potential of the wool-based industries to come together as an international luxury label and create a platform for joint action in the future.
Shepherd of Himalayas is a great endeavor to bring together the diverse learnings from herding communities of the country at one platform. The endeavor can work towards the craft and skills mapping of these communities. Apart from assessing and mapping the Himalayan wool economy’s potential, the promises offered by their dairy and agro-products should also be realized. Cooperatives at the regional and district levels can aspire to come together at the regional/national level for collective action and brand building. Institutions like ICAR- National Research Centre on Yak, various Sheep and Wool Development Boards, ICAR - National Dairy Research Institute can be requested to provide counsel to this national Shepherds’ brand in disseminating best grazing practices, proper wool segregation, and shearing techniques, technology know-how to improve raw material quality. We urge the shepherd communities to aspire for a Brown Revolution from the highlands of India. |
06/03/2021
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Abhilasha Bahuguna |
She is a rural development facilitator. She is the Nonprofit Co-founder and Strategist of Looms of Ladakh. She has briefly worked with CentERdata Tilburg Netherlands as a Scientific Associate. She holds a double master's degree in Economics and Educational Planning and Management. She can be reached at abhilashabahuguna9@gmail.com
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Prasanna Ramaswamy |
He is an Indian Administrative Service officer of the erstwhile state of J&K (now part of the AGMUT cadre of the IAS) who served as the District Development Commissioner/Deputy Commissioner of Leh district from 2015 till 2017. He is a co-founder of the Looms of Ladakh Cooperative. He has a Bachelor's degree in BTech Biotechnology and a Master’s degree in Economics. He can be reached at prasalex1987@gmail.com
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Looms of Ladakh Women Cooperative has been featured exclusively in The Hindu, Elle October 2019 issue, Gulf News 15 August 2019, Fashion Revolution UK Craft Magazine 04, Innovations Coffee Table Book of Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, Government of India, Lok Sabha TV Prerak Pehel, Pashmina Trail with Ranveer Brar on LivingFoodz Channel’s Off the Himalayas, NDTV Safalta Ke Kadam/Stitching a Green Future, to name a few. Looms of Ladakh has also been awarded Skoch Award for Top 100 MSMEs in 2018. The co-authors have been awarded the TN Chaturvedi Award for best article in 2019 in SAGE Indian Journal of Public Administration of Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi. The work and vision of Looms of Ladakh have been presented by co-authors at the Club of Rome India Chapter event at India International Centre New Delhi in January 2020, INTACH conference at Wildlife Institute of India 2017, GreenFest SUSSout event 2017. Watch Looms of Ladakh | Documentary | Project Laksal
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