Nepal is also known for its finely woven pashmina
products. Pashmina productsl is an indigenous and
unique product of Nepal. It is hand-made from the
wool sheared off from mountain goats that are found
in the Himalayan regions.Most of the skins come
from high altitudes of 9000 to 11000 feet above
sea level. Depending on their preference skins are
usually of four colors gray, white, black, and cream.
The pashmina making process undergo pain staking
process done completely by hand.
The pashmina wool is collected every spring from
the Mountain goat. Pashmina is the goat's soft underbelly
down, which lies under the coarse outer hair. Each
goat produces only about 3 ounces or 90 grams of
Pashmina wool each year. One woven Pashmina shawl
requires the wool from three goats. , and is basically
spun by hand. The yarn is spun on a spinning wheel
locally known as ‘Charkha’. Hand-spinning
is an extremely painstaking task. It requires immense
patience, dexterity and dedication.
Pashmina yarn is too fragile for the vibration
caused by power looms, the weaving of the traditional
100% Pashmina shawls are therefore done on handlooms.
The weaving process is in itself an art, which has
been passed down over generations, to give you the
fabulous pashmina shawls.
The making of the distinctive Pashmina fringe is
perhaps one of the most interesting stages of shawl
making. It takes hours to fringe each Pashmina shawl.
Dyeing is also done by hand. Dyers with immense
patience and generations of experience are the ones
who dye the Pashmina shawls, as even the smallest
negligence reflects on the quality of the product.
Only natural dyes are used, making the shawls completely
eco-friendly.
The entire process of manufacturing Pashmina products
like pashmina shawls, pashmina sweaters pashmina
muffler and pashmina blanket etc. are similar.