Bright coloured cloth shawls, from Nepal and India

Colourful shawls on colourful Indian streets

These bright, colourful shawls are an all too familiar sight, especially in northern regions of the country, where winters tend to be colder. While the peak of winter sees more of quilts and ‘razais’, they give way to lighter pashmina shawls (woven from sheep wool) when winter is near its end. The shawls are usually woven in Himalayan regions of India and Nepal before winter, and the craftsmen flock to the cities to sell their goods once it is too cold for daily life there. Come summer, and they return to their homes in the mountains. Need a pashmina, anyone?