thumb|Shahtoosh shawl
thumb|Shahtoosh is made from [[chiru fur.]]
Shahtoosh (; from Persian 'wool king') is wool obtained from chiru fur.
As undomesticated wild animals, the chirus cannot be shorn, so they are killed for this purpose. Due to the severe decline of the chiru population by 90% in the second half of the 20th century, they were internationally classified as a critically endangered species until 2016. On the black market, shahtoosh shawls fetch prices ranging from $5,000 to $20,000. Because of the small fiber diameter, the down hair of the chirus is the finest of all animal hairs. The down hair is wavy and mosaic scaled with a scale spacing of 5.3 scales per 100 microns. At the scale edge, the hair is thicker, making the fiber diameter uneven along the length of the hair. The lighter the hair color, the lighter the shades that can be dyed.
The guard hairs are separated from the down hair by sorting. However, due to the fineness and low tensile strength of the fiber, sorting can only be done manually and incompletely, resulting in guard hairs in scarves. Due to tiny air bubbles in the hair, the guard hairs of shahtoosh show a pattern like laid stone slabs under a light microscope. Therefore, the population of about one million in the 1950s dropped drastically to an estimated 45,000 (1998 estimate) or 75,000 (2000 estimate) and recovered to about 150,000 animals by 2009 due to species protection.
Shahtoosh wool is spun and woven, either in rectangular plain weave or diamond-shaped plain weave (called chashme bulbul 'eye of the nightingale' or 'diamond weave'). Shawls for women are often 2 m × 1 m in size and weigh circa 100 g, while shawls for men are often 3 m × 1.5 m (called doshala). In April 2000, British authorities fined a London-based trading company for the illegal possession of 138 scarves. Between 2010 and 2018, a total of 295 scarves were confiscated in Switzerland, corresponding to an average of 33 scarves per year. or measurement under a scanning electron microscope.
History
Under Emperor Akbar, the imperial wardrobe began to utilize Tus or Shahtoosh on a large scale. It was the costliest, warmest and most delicate shawl. It was soft enough to pass through a finger ring. Its natural colours were black, white and red. It is said that Akbar once gave orders for the white to be dyed into red, but the shawl did not take the colour of the dye. People began to use it simply in its natural colours.
See also
- Kekexili: Mountain Patrol - a film based on the Wild Yak Brigade of the 1990s that sought to limit poaching for shahtoosh
References
External links
- Endangered Species Handbook | Tibetan Antelope