Kashmiri Handicraft Workshop Tour

About this Activity

Kashmir's handicrafts are known around the world, and Srinagar is recognised by UNESCO as a Creative City for crafts and folk arts. This tour takes guests behind the showroom counters and into the workshops where the work is actually done. Guests watch pashmina being spun and woven by hand on wooden looms, and learn how to tell a genuine pashmina shawl from an imitation. In a carpet workshop they see weavers tie thousands of knots by hand while following the taalim, a coded script that sets out the pattern row by row. The tour also visits papier-mâché artists who shape and paint boxes, vases and ornaments with fine floral designs, and walnut wood carvers who cut detailed chinar leaves and vines into furniture and trays. At each stop the artisans explain their tools, how long a single piece takes and how the skill has been passed down through their families. Guests can try a few simple steps themselves, ask questions and buy directly from the makers at fair prices, which supports the craft families of the valley. It is an easy, indoor friendly activity that works in every season, including rainy and snowy days.