Himalayan Ascent: The Textiles of Avani and Panchachuli
Last year, in 2010, I decided to travel to India for the month of July. I had been working with the artisan support organization, Friends of Tilonia, for several months, and was eager to witness firsthand and gain a deeper understanding of the production process undertaken by the Indian artisans whose work I was promoting in the United States. Some of those artisans were from Avani, a non-profit organization quite literally nestled into the green, rolling foothills of the Kumaon Himalayas. I arrived to a hot, humid, monsoon-season Delhi, only to make my way, via overnight train to Kathgodam and a winding, upward-bound jeep ride into the mountains, to the cool and lush town of Almora, the home of Avani’s founders, Rashmi Bharti and Rajnish Jain.
Rashmi and Rajnish founded Avani in 1996 as the Uttaranchal (former name of the Indian state Uttarakhand) chapter of the Social Work and Research Centre, Tilonia, Rajasthan, an organization that is now known as the Barefoot College. Both Avani and the Barefoot College are committed to finding local, community-driven solutions to rural development. Among the organizations’ initiatives, which range from organic farming to women’s health education, they are perhaps most renowned for their work with renewable energy. For example, the Indian team of female solar engineers at the Barefoot College now trains women from across the world, from Bolivia to Sierra Leone, to be solar technicians in their own communities, and Avani is currently receiving great praise for its construction of a pine needle gasifier. The machine utilizes the abundant pine needles in the region, which are in excess due to the monoculture forests planted by the British and result in environmentally damaging forest fires and rainwater runoff.
Reviving and preserving traditional, indigenous methods of textile production has also been paramount to the two organizations as a way to both create income-generating projects that make sense as a natural growth out of the communities’ cultural history and tradition, as well as promote a sustainable mode of production that does little, if no harm to the environment. Indeed, Rashmi once remarked that the goal at Avani is “…to leave the earth a little more beautiful than we found it.”
This sentiment is mimicked in each carefully thought out step of the process of the handwoven textile creation at Avani. Tibetan sheep wool is gathered locally from herds that live in the plateau region of the high-altitude Himalayas and then handspun by Avani’s artisans. Tussar, Eri, and Muga silkworms thrive on local, indigenous tree species. The silks from these worms, which are Ahimsa, or non-violent, are spun by hand. Dye materials are also cultivated and gathered locally, and include madder root, pomegranate rind, and walnut hulls, among many others.
It is a beautiful process to witness, as I was fortunate to be able to do, and it is also an exemplary model of the slow design movement. What is even more incredible is seeing a batch of scarves delivered, by foot, from one of Avani’s four field centers to the organization’s headquarters in the tiny village of Tripuradevi (and when I mean tiny, I mean tiny!) one day, only to ship out the next day to one of Avani’s customers within the major urban centers of India, or to France, Switzerland, the United States, or Canada – a world away from the mountains that Avani calls home.
Though Avani is certainly an outstanding example of an organization engaging in the work of sustainably reviving traditional textile skills, it is very fortunately not the only one. Panchachuli is another organization based in the Kumaon Himalayas that utilizes local lambswool, pashmina, nettle, Tussar silk, and dye materials, in addition to traditional methods of production, including handweaving and knitting, to produce a collection of yardage and fashion and home accessories.
Several textiles created by Panchachuli are available via Source4Style. Among them, two in particular, Oak Tussah Silk with Lambswool – Waves and Oak Tussah Silk with Sheepswool, display the beautiful subtleties that occur in the combination of two fibers. In these examples, the golden wild silk contrasts with the richly hued, deep blue and burgundy naturally dyed wool.
Panchachuli works with approximately eight hundred female artisans from thirty-two villages, with its headquarters in Almora. Its efforts, and the efforts of organizations like it, including Avani, are helping to change the design landscape of India, a place with a deeply rooted tradition of handcrafted design, but also a place where chemically dyed yarns and textiles and machine-produced goods had begun to replace objects created with time-honored skills. By choosing the “slow” path, Avani and Panchachuli employ hundreds of local artisans (raising the economy of the region) and utilize low-impact production methods out of respect for the environment that gives life to the community. In doing this, these intrepid organizations not only produce textiles that are at once luxurious and earthy, but they also offer essential and inspirational lessons from which the design world is learning. ♥
Stay tuned on Source4Style for a two-part video on the inspiring story of Avani.
