Why Basohli

When people hear "Pashmina," they think of Kashmir. The Dal Lake, the shikaras, the bustling markets of Lal Chowk. And yes, Srinagar is the commercial heart of the Pashmina trade. But the soul of Pashmina — the spinning, the weaving, the quiet daily labor of turning raw fiber into something extraordinary — lives in smaller places. Places like Basohli.

Basohli sits at the edge of the Shivalik hills in Kathua district, where the mountains begin their climb toward the Pir Panjal range. It is a town that most maps barely acknowledge. But in the world of Indian art, Basohli is a name that resonates. In the 17th and 18th centuries, this small town produced a school of miniature painting — the Basohli school — that is considered among the most vibrant and expressive in Indian art history.

What is less known is that Basohli also had a thriving textile tradition. The same artistic sensibility that produced those paintings — bold color, fine detail, a reverence for natural beauty — also expressed itself in weaving. Pashmina shawls woven in Basohli carried a character distinct from those of the Kashmir Valley: a slightly different hand-feel, patterns influenced by the Pahari aesthetic, and techniques adapted to the local environment.

This tradition nearly died. Decades of neglect, competition from machine-made textiles, and the migration of young people to cities left only a handful of weavers still working in Basohli. When we first visited, we found Master Ghulam Mohammad weaving alone in his home — the last full-time handloom weaver in a town that once had dozens.

The Pashm Project began with a simple conviction: that Basohli's textile heritage is worth reviving. Not as a museum piece, but as a living craft — producing shawls that people wear, cherish, and pass down. We work with the weavers of Basohli to create authentic Pashmina that carries the specific character of this place and these hands.

This is why we say Basohli. Not because it is a marketing story, but because it is the truth of where and how these shawls are made.