People of Kashmir

According to historians, the ancestors of Kashmiris are early immigrants from India proper. With the spread of Buddhism, many scholars came to Kashmir from far-off lands for research and study. The contact of Kashmiris with the Roman, Greek and Persian civilizations resulted into a fusion of cultures. Most of the people claim their descent from the Indo-Aryan stock but one can easily find people belonging to diverse and different races inhabiting Kashmir with distinct looks, dresses, food habits, customs, speech and traditions.

Kashmiris have made remarkable contributions to the arts of story-telling and mystical poetry,

Handicrafts of Kashmir

Jammu and Kashmir is not only home to the vast cultural and ethnic diversity but also the myriad arts and crafts that have been carefully nurtured for the centuries. A variety of motifs, techniques and crafts flourished in the land as the people from different regions flocked through this beautiful place and many of the skilled craftsmen decided to settle amidst its charming abundance of natural beauty.

Carpet
Kashmiri carpets are world renowned for two things - they are hand made and they are always knotted, never tufted. The yarn used normally is silk, wool or silk and wool. Woolen carpets always have a cotton base while silk usually have cotton base.
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Namdas
Far less expensive are these colorful floor coverings made from woolen and cotton fiber, which has been manually pressed into shape. Prices vary with the percentage of wool - a Namda containing 80% wool being more expensive than one containing 20% wool. Chain stitch embroidery in woolen and cotton thread is worked on these rugs.

Shawls
There are three fibers from which the Kashmiri shawls are made - Wool, Pashmina and Shahtoosh. Woolen shawls being are the cheapest while the Shahtoosh are the most expensive ones. Woolen shawls are popular because of the embroidery, worked on them, which is a specialty to Kashmir. Both embroidery and the type of wool used causes differences in price.