The sarees of Srinagar

What is woven here

Kani weaving builds a pattern with small wooden sticks, each wound with coloured thread, which the weaver passes through the warp according to a pattern read from a coded sheet called a talim. The work is slow, and a single shawl can take months. Pashmina is the wool from the undercoat of a goat of the high plateaus. Sarees in pashmina are soft and light and are usually worn in winter, and some are embroidered in sozni or in a heavier needlework called tilla.

The craft and its people

Kani weaving and embroidery are done by families, often of long standing, and are among the most specialised skills in India. The weaving is done at looms in homes and workshops, and the embroidery in separate hands. The Kashmir shawl tradition goes back several centuries and was known across Asia and Europe. Today the craft faces competition from machine-made and imitation pashmina, so buyers should look for proof of origin.

Seeing it

The old city around Zaina Kadal and the lanes of the downtown area have workshops and traders, and Kanihama village in Budgam district, west of the city, is the place most associated with kani weaving. A visit to a weaver's workshop is the best way to see a bobbin loom. Dal Lake and the Mughal gardens fill the rest of the visit.

A trail idea for Srinagar

1. Old city workshops Visit the downtown lanes where shawl traders and embroiderers work in small rooms.
2. Kanihama village Travel to the village known for kani weaving to see the wooden bobbin technique at a loom.
3. An embroidery workshop Ask to see sozni needlework being done, and how long a single border takes.
4. Dal Lake and the Mughal gardens Rest the eye on the setting from which many of the shawl's flower patterns come.