Himachal Pradesh

Five thousand years at the loom

Himachal has been weaving for five thousand years. In the high valleys, families work shawls on pit looms and backstrap looms, setting geometric patterns and sacred symbols that mean exactly what they show. A separate tradition embroiders miniature scenes onto cloth, identical on both faces. The colour comes from the plants of the slope.

The highest villages snow in for months. The work follows the light and the season, and a single shawl can take weeks to leave the loom.

The valleys worth the journey

The Kullu valley keeps the shawl weavers and the great autumn festival. Chamba, to the west, holds the fine double-sided embroidery. Kinnaur climbs higher, where the sacred-symbol shawls are made above nine thousand feet. Spiti lies beyond, a cold desert of monasteries and thin, clear air.