Pashmina and Shahtoosh - origins and ethics

    Ten or more years ago on a work trip to Pune, India I treated myself to a pashmina from the 'Kashmiri Handicraft Shop' in the city. It was a treat indeed - in a different league from other shawls I owned from when pashminas had a fashion moment in the 1990s and which were made from acrylic, lambswool or silk mixes. I was assured by the salesman that my selected pashmina was the best quality as evidenced by the fact it passed the 'ring test' and could be pulled through a finger ring. It is a very fine, diamond weave.

Pashmina or  Pashm (and Cashmere) fabric is produced from the fine hair on the belly of the capra hircus mountain goat (15-19 microns). It is originally from Kashmir and Ladakh but up to 90% of cashmere exports now are from China and Mongolia. There are concerns over animal welfare associated with the processes used to comb or shear the belly hair from the goats and the care and treatment of the animals involved in the mass production of the fibres (ref. 1). The traditional process for producing pashm is to comb the fibres from the goat when they shed naturally in spring which is then passed to weavers in Kashmir to produce shawls and fabric. 

 Shahtoosh ('the finest wool in the world') is even finer (11.5 microns). It is also from the Tibetan Plateau but is made from the hair of the chiru antelope. Since 1979, the fabric has been illegal to sell, buy or own. It was claimed that the fibres for the yarn were collected from that which was naturally shed but the poaching and slaughtering of animals to produce shahtoosh had impacted the population significantly with 3-5 antelope being killed to produce one shawl (ref. 5). 

At the same time as the fabric was made illegal, the antelope was made a protected species (ref. 2 & 3), now in the same class as the Giant Panda. The antelopes continued to be poached into the 1990s and the hides smuggled through Nepal to weavers in Kashmir. The shawls continued to be traded and available (at a price) into the late 1990s (ref. 4).

Victoria Finlay in the chapter about Pashmina in her book Fabric (ref. 6, p. 208) describes how the ban has had repercussions. There is now increased farming of goats for fine quality pashmina (to replace shahtoosh), with shooting of snow leopards and wolves to protect the goat flocks and increased grazing impacting vegetation and causing flooding issues. 

The production of high quality pashmina/cashmere and the production of shawls with similar qualities to shahtoosh was one recommendation of the Wildlife Protection Society of India's paper (ref. 5) to address the continued desirability and illegal trade of shahtoosh(along with increased enforcement and education). A technique has been developed to produce 'shahmina' shawls that are as light and fine as shahtoosh but using the finest cashmere from young mountain goats and handwoven.

My shawl is undyed pashmina, possibly 'shahmina' (there was certainly a mention of 'baby goat' in the salesman's explanation). It is almost as light as air and very soft and warm and is a lovely thing to wear. I can't imagine a shawl needing to be softer or lighter. I wore it constantly until it wore out into holes and it has sat awaiting repair for many years. It certainly deserves repair given what I have learnt about its possible origins and welfare issues associated with cashmere. Mending it comes next...

References

1 https://investigations.peta.org/cashmere-cruelty-china-mongolia/

2 https://www.elledecor.com/design-decorate/trends/a29190524/most-expensive-fabric-shahtoosh/

3 https://blog.princessemoghole.com/en/shahtoosh/

4 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/environment/conservation/10073050/Buyers-of-4000-shahtoosh-shawls-are-fuelling-illegal-wildlife-trade-Prince-Charles-warns.html

5 Wright, B & Kumar, A. (1998). Fashioned for Extinction: An expose of the shahtoosh trade. Wildlife Protection Society of India. Available at: https://www.wpsi-india.org/images/fashioned_for_extinction.pdf

6 Finlay, V (2021). Fabric: the hidden history of the material world. Profile Books (London)

Images: 

Tibetan antelope (Pantholops hodgsonii) male, Kekexili, Qinghai, Tibetan Plateau, China, November. [Photograph]. Encyclopædia Britannica ImageQuest. Retrieved 10 Mar 2023, from https://quest.eb.com/search/138_3610479/1/138_3610479/cite 

Other images are author's own