The king of shawls - Shahtoosh

“The king of fine wool" is the translation of Santoosh magnificent and costliest shawl in the world. 

To own a Shahtoosh scraf or shawl is worth a king’s ransom that is by several thousand dollars and a few period ago, people willingly did so. 

At a point, royal and cream class of not only India but also the other countries skited  to possessed to have at least one of these, till it stamped illegal to own one. 

Now, that we have a glimpse of worlds most expensive shawl let’s explore further and know what makes it so special. 

# what is shahtoosh? 

An excellent quality of wool that is known in the history of mankind is the shahtoosh. Each fibers is one sixth of that of a human hair ie, around 7 to 10 microns and this fibers are used to make the famous shahtoosh shawls. 

The underfur of species of Antelope or locally called the chiru is used to manufacture the wool fabrics. Chiru is the migratory animals that lives at super high altitude around Tibetan plateau of about 5000 meters and develops the underfur for surviving in the extremely harsh weather. 

The hunters would hunt down the chiru and massacre it to obtain it’s fur. When shahtoosh shawls where legal. 

# what is the story of origin of shahtoosh? 

Shahtoosh shawl is recorded period back to the 16th century during the era of mughal Emperor Akbar.  It is believed that he was die-heart fan of shahtoosh shawls and he posses quite a few but regal art pieces. At that period of time when the wool fabric stamped it’s name as shahtoosh. While the shahtoosh weavers flourished and it was main source of income in Kashmir. 

Until, in 1666 the mughal emperor shah Jahan,  reserved it to the royal families. But as passing of times the shawl was eligible for commoners. The shawl shortly reached the heights of admiration with having a status symbol for the high class around the globe. 

Buck in the early days, this shawl were the wedding gifts. Thus, the market of shahtoosh shawls began and govern the market for a larger period of time. 

# how many types of shahtoosh shawls? 

Commonly, there are three types of shahtoosh shawls based on the material used and They are _

• 16 Dani or Shurah Dani;  This is 100% toosh fabric. 

• 12 Dani or Bah Dani; this type is the combination of 75% tooth with 25% pashmina.

• 8 Dani or Aeth Dani, This type is a 50-50 mixture of tooth and passionately. 

# how the shahtoosh is weavers? 

Kashmir is the only place where shahtoosh shawl is handwoven by the artisan. Huge number of weavers livelihood is dependent on the weaving of these shawls. Traditionally the shawl is weavers used the handloom. 

As the fabric is extremely delicate, machine cannot be trusted and every process is done using hands. As a result of the exhaustive process of weaving, the shawls is completed from a month to a year by a weaver. 

# what is the reason of exclusiveness of shahtoosh? 

The process behind the manufacturing shawl is strenuous and time talking. The first step is to obtain the fur from chiru and for that chiru is hunted, after the first step, with using handlooms the weavers weave the shahtoosh fabric. 

To manufacture just one shawl, ruffly 350gm of fur is needed and to gain that much fur 3 chiru is required. 

This is one of the reasons that makes the shawl expensive. The feel is so soft, warm and lightweighted and it is matchless to any of the other fabric. 

It is known for its owners feel the emotion of pride and unique and royal. The fabric is so  light Weighted  that you feels anything on your shoulder. not just it’s lightness but it’s warm ness is also praise worth that it can hatch a pigeon eggs and can pass through a wedding ring. 

# what is the reason behind the band of shahtoosh? 

In 1975 ( CITES)  the UN convention on international trade in endangered species of wild flora and fauna banned the trade of the chiru wool products. 

But the law was finally enforced. The Indian government put a ban on trade of shahtoosh in 1991. Then, the j&k government announced a ban on the manufacture and trade of shahtoosh wool in the early 2000.

In a year, to produce a number of shawls approx  20000 chirus were killed. This lead to rapidly decrease the number of chiru by the end of the 20th century and chiru entered in the list of endangered species. This is one of the main reason to ban on the shahtoosh trade. 

Due to many people livelihood is depending on the shahtoosh, a parliament panel requested to uplift the ban on shahtoosh. However the request was not accepted and the trade of shawls still remains illegal rather the weavers were provided with other alternative way of earning. 

# what is the alternative of shahtoosh shawls? 

Shahtoosh is now a word that is talked about with much subrosa. Though, the Shawls were banned the demand is increasing in national as well as International market. Though the alternative of shahtoosh shawls were pashmina shawls from Kashmir which is legal as well. 

Can the pashmina bit the softness, Warmness and lightness of shahtoosh shawls?

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