Telling the Story

I have been working on a series of drawings that will tell the story of how Hindu Kush clothes are made and are transported to the UK. They will form the 'Story' part of the website.

The main drawing shows the sequence of transport and manufacture. I have uploaded it below, even though it charges through the navigation bar, but you have to see it in one go!

We start off with the making of the cloth in the Hindu Kush....

The cloth then travels by super-glamorous Pakistani truck over the mountains and down into the plains to our factory in Lahore, where our garments are carefully put together...

Then it's by sea to the UK!

Accompanying the main drawing are popup pages which will give details on specific parts of the process:

Please forgive the spelling and grammar in the windows below, they are work in progress!

Locating the Hindu Kush

The special sheep that provides the wool for our cloth. These sheep know their worth. 

The traditional clobber of the Hindu Kush. Texting is not so traditional...

Tolls used in making the cloth and the families that use them.

Baroghil and Yak Polo

Where the Hindu Kush and Pamir ranges meet there is a valley called Baroghil. The valley shelters a high altitude pasture where Wakhi nomads graze their yaks and on top of every ridge sits a marmot ready to squeak at passers by. It also boasts a superabundance of wild flowers, including the Himalayan edelweiss. All in all it is a pretty blissful place.

I didn't have a very blissful time getting to it, however. Nearly falling down a crevasse, getting drenched up to my armpits in a fast flowing river, spending a night with no cover in the snow and a horse which could sense my fear and repeatedly bucked me.  Still, it was a great adventure and the local people I was with were very kind, although a bit bemused by my calamity proneness. Why did I keep on falling into rivers? Was I doing it on purpose?

We were all heading to a polo festival where matches were played on the back of yaks. Yaks are too stupid to be any good at polo. One problem is that they are frightened by the ball and often run away from it. Another issue is that they don't obey their riders commands and when tiring of the game will charge off the pitch scattering the audience  and ploughing on towards the horizon with their hapless riders still attached. They do look spectacular though, like something out of Star Wars.

Having just crossed a glacier with Guja nomads.

The Guja nomad's summer camp.

In convoy with the Guja nomads. (Note the polo mallets wrapped up in the bedding roll).

Approaching Baroghil polo festival. I could see the plume of dust from miles away.

An elegant polo player.

Dancing in the evening. Aficionados can dance with a full tea cup balanced on their heads. Regretfully, I didn't manage to photograph this daring feat.

Frequently yaks would disappear over the brim of the hillocks with their riders powerless to stop them.

Buzkashi, a gentle game whereby players wrestle for a headless goat carcass (you can see the carcass in the right of the picture).

This yak nearly got me. But I did manage to capture its rider's psychedelic cardigan and shell suit combination.

Yark, the man who owned more yaks than anyone else in the valley. His turban, tweed jacket and aviators combined signaled very clearly who was boss.

Pressed flowers from the high altitude pastures. Edelweiss is bottom left. I also recorded their Wakhi names and some basic medicinal uses. The drawing is of a traditional spinning wheel.

A mountain that we walked past on the way to the polo festival. The sky was turning dark and the weather was coming in quickly.

The Himalayan Edelweiss

The lady's coat is back from the tailor. No pictures of it yet I am afraid, but there will be soon! I have done a little drawing of a Himalayan Edelweiss to go inside it. I saw quite a few of these in 2006 near Baroghil around the Karumba lake on the border with Afghanistan's Wakhan corridor. It's a beautiful area of high altitude pasture, famed for it's wild flowers... and very remote, it take 3 days or so to walk in from the jeep road. I pressed quite a few flowers (below) and also started a drawing of local Wakhi women spinning wool- the same technique which is used in the manufacture of shu.