Shahtoosh
Shahtoosh (also written Shahtush, a Persian word meaning "king of fine wools") is the name given to a specific kind of shawl, which is woven with the down hair of the Tibetan antelope (Chiru), by the weavers of Kashmir.
These shawls were originally very few and it took very skilled artisans to weave the delicate hair (which measured between 9 and 11 micrometres). These factors made Shahtoosh shawls very precious. Shahtoosh are so fine that an average size shawl can be passed through a wedding ring, leading to them also being known as 'ring shawls.'
The Chiru antelope live in one of the harshest environments on earth, at an altitude of over 5,000 metres. Their special type of down fur, which is both very light and warm, allows them to survive in the freezing conditions of the plateau where they gather at one point of the year. They are migratory animals - moving down from Mongolia to Tibet - and traditionally followed closely by the nomads, who also make that journey every year. The nomads would hunt the antelope for all that it provided them - hide, meat, bones, horns and fur pelts - in short, everything that the nomads needed to sustain them through their journey.
It is a long-perpetuated false claim, that nomads gathered Chiru down from rocks and bushes, after it was naturally shed.
The nomads had no use at all for the soft down - its incredible fineness making it virtually impossible to handle - and this is where the weavers of Kashmir played their role. With their experience in handling the finest hand-combed Pashmina wool, they could weave shawls of the most exquisite quality, and thus the Shahtoosh shawl was born.
When the British (of British India) traveled to Kashmir in Summer, they realised the worth of Pashmina and Shahtoosh shawls and introduced them to the world, which led to greater demand for these products. Subsequently, the antelope was hunted down specifically for its fur and this led to it now being listed as an endangered species and given the highest possible level of legal protection, whereby no commercial trade in Shahtoosh is permitted.
This also led to the demise of the skill of the Kashmir weavers, who were the only ones in the world who could handle the fibre.
The selling or owning of Shahtoosh was made illegal in all countries that signed the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. Many countries including the USA, China and India are cracking down on those involved in the Shahtoosh trade. Although Shahtoosh is banned under the agreement, illegal hunting and selling of Shahtoosh is still a serious problem in Tibet.
The Chiru antelope live in one of the harshest environments on earth, at an altitude of over 5,000 metres. Their special type of down fur, which is both very light and warm, allows them to survive in the freezing conditions of the plateau where they gather at one point of the year. They are migratory animals - moving down from Mongolia to Tibet - and traditionally followed closely by the nomads, who also make that journey every year. The nomads would hunt the antelope for all that it provided them - hide, meat, bones, horns and fur pelts - in short, everything that the nomads needed to sustain them through their journey.
It is a long-perpetuated false claim, that nomads gathered Chiru down from rocks and bushes, after it was naturally shed.
The nomads had no use at all for the soft down - its incredible fineness making it virtually impossible to handle - and this is where the weavers of Kashmir played their role. With their experience in handling the finest hand-combed Pashmina wool, they could weave shawls of the most exquisite quality, and thus the Shahtoosh shawl was born.
When the British (of British India) traveled to Kashmir in Summer, they realised the worth of Pashmina and Shahtoosh shawls and introduced them to the world, which led to greater demand for these products. Subsequently, the antelope was hunted down specifically for its fur and this led to it now being listed as an endangered species and given the highest possible level of legal protection, whereby no commercial trade in Shahtoosh is permitted.
This also led to the demise of the skill of the Kashmir weavers, who were the only ones in the world who could handle the fibre.
The selling or owning of Shahtoosh was made illegal in all countries that signed the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. Many countries including the USA, China and India are cracking down on those involved in the Shahtoosh trade. Although Shahtoosh is banned under the agreement, illegal hunting and selling of Shahtoosh is still a serious problem in Tibet.
Since the endangered Tibetan antelope, or chiru cannot be domesticated and where we sheer or comb other animals in order to harvest their wool, the hairs of the Tibetan Antelope need to be individually plucked from the skin - they must be killed in order to obtain their wool.
Illegal to sell or possess since 1975, shahtoosh shawls did a brisk business on the black market throughout the 1990s, selling for as much as $15,000 apiece as the Tibetan antelope's population plummeted to fewer than 75,000.
Despite the ban on shahtoosh in India, a thriving black market still caters to customers in London, New York, and Los Angeles who will pay as much as $17,000 for a shawl.
But $17,000 is a drop in the ocean compared to the devastating effects the luxury of owning a shahtoosh shawl is having on the herds of Tibetan Antelope. The true cost of these shawls is the decline of a vulnerable species in order to satisfy human vanity.
As many as 20,000 chiru are killed every year for their wool, a rate that will wipe out the species soon, if left unchecked.
Shahtoosh shawls are so incredibly lightweight that they can be passed through an average sized finger ring, hence their common name, ‘Ring Shawls’. The reason they’re so light is because each hair of the Tibetan Antelope is around 6 times thinner than the average human hair. That’s a very fine hair! Each shahtoosh shawl requires about 350 grams of wool. Being as each Tibetan Antelope yields no more than 125 - 150 grams, it takes the wood of three animals to make just one shawl.
Just imagine, three animals are killed for every shahtoosh shawl sold!