Kinnaur in Himachal Pradesh located on the Indo – Tibetan border still has a culture of its own. The finest but most time-consuming weaves in wool which is in the purest form.
The art and artists were cut off from the rest of the world, because for numerous reasons. Untouched regions, topography, climate, and most importantly their lack of trust in modern culture. Their techniques were stile and commercialized but still, they refuses to sell their ancestry.
There is no change in the usage of these shawls. Though a few households in the administrative headquarters of Kinnaur, reckong-peo, have little shops where they sell them locally but vastly they still weave them for their own.
History
The “wool road”, merely a donkey trail, was the traditional main trade route in the region, and was so important that it was later widened to motorable width to improve trade in the region and came to be known as the Hindus tan-Tibet road”. Two groups of artisans that can be found along this important route are the weavers of Kullu and Kinnaur. Their strategic location on these routes caused their weaving to be greatly impacted by the ancient trade and traffic along it.
Their weaving traditions have a long and intertwined history and their shawls are relatively famous throughout India; however, their distinct and skillful weaving is nearly unknown to the outside world.
There is a blend of Hindu and Buddhist culture that is largely visible. For years, they have maintained a certain lifestyle and are content with it. They believe they have their own identity and that is, what they want to conserve their art form being the main.
FIolklore
Lord Shiva’s abode is said to be the Kailash Mountain. One peak, visible from all of Kinnaur, is the Kinnar Kailash and this is supposed to be where Shiva lives. For years, Shivaratri has been celebrated with much dedication in Kinnaur. However, Buddhism has had a major influence on the culture of the religion. There is a particular tale which exists in both Hindu and Buddhist mythology, which is said to have given Kinnaur its existence.
Kinnaris, the female counterpart of Kinnaras, is depicted as Half humans. One of the many creatures that inhabit the mythical Himavanta, giving birth to a land called Kinnaur.
The shawl is a tribute to them and is related to family love, bonding, and symbol of the family loom.
belief
The Kinnauri Shawl is of a very typical kind. It is a blend of two weaves: A fundamental weave for the ground and body fabric and extra-weft for the design. The basic weave for the body and ground is twill. Twill is used in all its forms: Basic twill, pointed twill, herringbone twill and basket weaves. All designs are done on four shafts. In Kinnauri shawls, it is believed that the finer and the heavier the design, the wealthier and better, the family background.
When a boy is to be married, the girl’s family shows the entire spectrum of shawls, the family has woven. It is a norms by which the marriage is finalized. The extra-weft is done just for the design, where knotting and changing lifting orders do every part of it singularly. The design happens on both the ends and goes on till half a metre towards the main body.
Designs and technique
The kinds of designs in Kinnauri weaving are restricted, but they are used in a variety of way and a variety of forms. The design is made using the extra-weft technique of weaving. In most handlooms, the extra-weft can be woven along with the ground fabric. In the Kinnauri shawls, every single part of the design is woven using the knotting method where the weft is inserted by hand and to lock the design, the lifting pattern is formed.
The Kinnauri design is so fine that it takes over six months to make a shawl with heavy work-. The weavers spend the entire winters inside their houses, weaving these shawls. The room where the designbearing shawls are woven is kept under lock and key for their belief that it is the wealth they possess.
This method of extra-weft weaving is not schooled anywhere else except Kinnaur and Kullu.
Why they can not trust anyone when comes to their heritage?
The very famous Kullu Shawls, woven in Kullu, Himachal Pradesh. They are very similarly done, as the Kinnari Shawls. Well, it disbelieved that they were picked up from Kinnaur over a century ago and their technique was used to generate a wider variety of designs and shawls for the commercial market. These shawls are also made by hand and are done by artisans and not power looms. But the Kinnaris are deeply affected by it. They are suspicious about talking about it because they feel that their culture and a crucial part of their lives has been stolen from them and passed out to the world in exchange with money. They believe that one winter night, over a hundred years ago, people from Kullu entered Kinnaur and cheered it of its wealth.
Legend goes, that they broke into homes of naive people and took whatever they could find. That is when they saw their looms. They found the shawls and learnt their technique of weaving. They left after a couple of days and within a span of a few months, they were wearing and selling cheapy commercial editions of the Kinnari Shawls. Soon, the Kullus began to assume it is their pride and began wearing the designs on their caps and socks. For the Kinnaris, this was hurting the feelings of their auspicious beliefs. That is when they decided to guard their heritage and keep the world away from the original traditional Kinnari Shawls. They today refuse to sell these shawls to any stranger because they feel their culture will be misused again. They say their heartbreaks when some tourist sees the Kinnari Shawls and asks them whether they bought it in Kullu. They refuse to share their knowledge with any person they don’t have faith in and hence have become very introvert about their lives.
Its time, that as change the perspective of this generation that we take the onus upon us that the faith of the Kinnari weavers in the world outside will be rebuilt and that they will believe that there are people out there who honor their work.
we make sure that the art should not disappeared among the snow laden mountains of the Greater Himalayas.
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