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Ladakh Pashmina

Ladakh Pashmina is a collaborative effort that brings together livestock herders, weavers, artisans, entrepreneurs, and conservation organizations to create a sustainable, snow leopard friendly, equitable, and  transparent supply chain. Our mission is to build a unique identity and an inclusive local economy for sustainably produced cashmere in Ladakh.

Know Your Pashmina

Our Purpose

Just 1 % of the cashmere produced globally qualifies as Ladakh Pashmina. Growing Ladakh Pashmina is a way of life for the local Changpa communities who graze their goats in incredibly high altitude pastures in India’s Eastern Ladakh region.

Sharing their pastures with snow leopards and other rare and unique wildlife, the Changpa strive to maintain a balance between sustaining their livelihoods while preserving their culture and honouring the ecological sanctity of the high mountains they inhabit.

Our Values

Sustainability

Transparency

Quality

Traceability

Sustainability

Sustainability

Our partner Changpa communities strive to produce cashmere sustainably. They actively engage in conserving the region’s wildlife including snow leopards, wolves and mountain ungulates.

Transparency

Transparency

Our herder’s cooperative follows a transparent procurement process that ensures a stable and fair price for the herders. Involving herding families in end-product development provides them an additional source of income.

Quality

Quality

Quality of Ladakh Pashmina is of the finest grade with a staple length of 2-3 inch and 12-14 micron width.

Traceability

Traceability

Sustainably produced Ladakh Pashmina can be traced back to the specific community that produced it.

  • Sustainability

    Sustainable herding practiced traditionally by the Changpa has allowed them to raise livestock for generations. The Changpas remain open to adopting wildlife-friendly and sustainable grazing practices.

  • Transparency

    Livelihood security of Changpa herders is ensured through a transparent procurement process which ensures a stable and fair price for their produce. Involving herding families in end-product development provides them an additional source of income.

  • Quality

    Quality of Ladakh Pashmina is of the finest grade with a staple length of 2-3 inch and 12-14 micron size.

  • Traceability

    All the produce from the region can be traced back to its point of origin at the level of the community.

Livelihood and Wildlife Conservation in Changthang

Our partner herding communities strive to earn their livelihood while sustaining traditional practices and proactively conserving wildlife on their lands.

  • Pasture Management

    Our partner herding communities practice rotational grazing. They maintain some pasturelands as grazing-free areas to help wildlife populations recover. These areas also serve as fall-back  for fodder in a drought year. Efforts for community-level pasture management of these lands are also being initiated.

  • Enhancing Livelihoods

    Several Changpa partners, especially women, work with community-run cooperatives like the Looms of Ladakh which assist them with training, skills, and livelihood enhancement through the development of cashmere products.

  • Mitigating Livelihood Risks

    We cooperatively run community-based initiatives to help mitigate the risks involved in livestock rearing. These include constructing predator-proof corrals to reduce livestock damage by wild carnivores; better insulated and protected lamb sheds to reduce the loss of young livestock to hypothermia; and livestock security programmes that provide financial support when livestock losses do take place.

  • Preventing Disturbance to Wildlife

    Our partner communities share their pastures with rare high-altitude wildlife species like the Snow leopard, Tibetan wolf, Eurasian lynx, and Pallas’s cat; and ungulates like bharal, Siberian ibex, Tibetan argali, Tibetan gazelle, Tibetan antelope and Kiang. Many of our partner communities are neutralizing Shangdong (wolf traps) and ending age-old practice of retaliatory killing.

  • Vaccination and Disease Management

    With changing climate and gloablization, there is high risk of disease outbreaks in livestock and its spread to wildlife populations as well. The Sheep Husbandry Department works with herders to carry out extensive drives to vaccinate and treat livestock. Community representatives trained as first-responders attend to calls of distress, facilitating early detection and management.

  • Management of Free Ranging Dogs

    Free ranging dogs pose a threat to livestock and wildlife. While some dogs are adopted and cared for by our partner herders, they also support efforts to sterilise and vaccinate free ranging dogs while ensuring humane handling and treatment. Such efforts are being led by the local administration including the Sheep Husbandry Department and other civil society organisations.

  • Nature Education and Reviving Culture

    Our partner herding communities are committed to reviving vanishing traditions, rituals and cultural practices linked to Pashmina production. We also organize nature camps and workshops to help enhance their knowledge, curiosity, and sensitivity towards nature and wildlife.

Featured Video

Ladakh Pashmina: the authentic, sustainable cashmere, a film by Munmun Dhalaria, Moon Peak Films.

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All Changthang Pashmina Growers Cooperative Marketing Society (ACPGCMS) is the nodal agency in Ladakh scouring and dehairing Pashmina. The Cooperative directly procures raw fibre from herding communities and ensures fair price to them. Along with local producers, artisans and entrepreneurs, the cooperative envisions creating a unique identity for sustainably produced Ladakh Pashmina.

Ladakh Pashmina – A history

Ladakh Pashmina – A history

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Pashmina dehairing and processing in Ladakh

Pashmina dehairing and processing in Ladakh

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Nomadic herding and livestock rearing in highlands of Changthang

Nomadic herding and livestock rearing in highlands of Changthang

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A Frozen World, Hoofs and Copious Cups of Tea

A Frozen World, Hoofs and Copious Cups of Tea

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