FIVE MINUTES WITH A FRIEND: LENA LADAKH

This week we caught up with Sonam and Minglek of Lena Ladakh to talk textiles and find out about their stories of textiles. Based in the Ladakh region in India, they produce handmade textiles using locally sourced Pashmina, Sheep and Yak wool. Their shawls, throws and home textiles are hand-spun, handwoven and 100% naturally dyed. An impressive production in a competitive textile industry that relies on industrialised methods.

Grab and cup of tea and hear more from the team behind Lena Ladakh.

What is your first memory of a textile, Minglek?
As a child, especially in the chilliest winter days, I have clear memories of bundling up in a sturdy Ladakhi woollen fabric we call 'Snambu'. Even my shoes were made from the same material, with soles crafted from rubber tires since leather was too costly for us. Life in Ladakh was about self-sufficiency—we used everything around us, from our homes and clothes to the food we ate.

I cherish the moments of my mum spinning sheep wool during the summer mornings and evenings. As winters approached, an elderly man from our neighbourhood would bring his portable loom to our front yard. He would set it up where the sunlight was just right and spend a day or two weaving a long piece of fabric using the sheep wool yarns that my mother and aunts had spun during the summer.



This woven fabric would then go into a half-cut barrel, boiled in hot water and my father would stomp on it to make the weave tight enough for crafting jackets and shoes to endure the long winter. I would proudly wear jackets made from the same homemade fabric, often dyed maroon, during the winter festivities. It was a special and meaningful part of growing up in Ladakh.

Can you put into words what you love about textiles, Minglek?
I have a deep love for textiles because they are like storytellers, preserving memories, connecting us to our culture, and showcasing human creativity. Whether it is traditional weavings or modern designs, each piece reflects the cleverness of individuals and communities. The feel of textiles goes beyond comfort and warmth, it is a profound sensory experience. These fabrics serve as a bridge between generations, connecting the past to today and shaping our identity. They are woven into our celebrations, rituals and daily life. What makes textiles special to me are the stories they carry, the hands that crafted them, and the cultural influences they embody. In simple terms, textiles are more than just things, they are means to express ourselves, a cultural treasure, and something that brings beauty and comfort to our lives. For example, the pashmina we handcraft at our studio becomes an heirloom, carrying emotions and warmth through generations. It transforms into a precious traveling shawl, carrying the bond of your family for many generations to come.



Where is your most inspiring space/place to create, Minglek?
The most inspiring space for crafting our pashmina textiles is at our studio while drawing inspiration from a variety of sources. Personally, I find rich inspiration in the old fabrics from the houses of our artisans. The vast landscape of Ladakh, with its changing seasonal hues and the shifting colours of the mighty mountains in the eastern part of Ladakh, resemble the colours we extract from natural dyes. This serves as a prototype in nature for working with colours on our fabrics. The deep and subtle colours found in the murals of old monasteries in Ladakh serve as an aesthetic inspiration. Furthermore, the existing fabrics in our studio serve as a starting point for new designs, acting as a foundation for innovation. In essence, the combination of traditional elements, the beauty of natural landscapes, the influence of historical art, and the material in our hands creates a uniquely inspiring environment for crafting our pashmina textiles.

What has inspired you recently, Sonam?
Lately, reading about the Silk Road days of Ladakh & trade days of past in general, took me to appreciate the undeniable interconnectedness of the world then, as it is now. The fact that a textile technique or motif or print found in one corner of the world seemed to have travelled from the other far off parts of the world, through trade routes, telling us of the multicultural influences on many of the so called indigenous textiles. This makes one see the vast mutuality, in the play of which, this world functions. Makes me think of how the influences, words and stories travel from one part of the world to the other in the form of textiles; making our journey of making handmade textiles, replicating old traditional motifs and patterns more enjoyable.



What is your most cherished textile, and why, Sonam?
One of the most cherished textiles I have now is this indigo dyed pashmina shawl we made at our studio. What makes this fabric special for me is the incorporation of the family yud of our dear friend from the nomadic community. Yuds are another amazing textile technique bearing so much of meaning in the nomadic regions. The technique is unique to Ladakh wherein each family in the nomadic regions have their own specific marks of identification woven carefully in their own fabrics like saddle bags and storage bags etc. During  Silk Road trading days, hundreds of people would gather for trade, exchange items & all would have the same black & white sheep wool woven bags, but only through the yud marks they would identify their own bags. The yud patterns are passed through the generations from the father to the eldest son and so on. The yuds were never woven on the pashmina shawls before & so borrowing yud pattern of our dear friend’s family & then weaving them into a pashmina shawl that I dyed with indigo myself, clearly made that fabric a cherished & a meaningful one.

Where did you learn your craft, Sonam?
Well in the production cycle of our company, my partner  Minglek & I contribute by natural dyeing. We learnt the basic dyeing techniques from an organisation in Uttarakhand, a north Indian state. Natural dyeing is so much about learning by doing kind of practice. The fact that all these plants ubiquitously present around us, has so much of magic & potential stored in them to add so much of value to our fabrics, is in itself a big nudge to keep on striving more to create more colours & to create them better. Our customers find it so wonderful that not only the shawl’s fibre is the most exquisite pashmina in the world, but it is completely hand-spun and handwoven, and then it is 100% natural dyed with many local medicinal plants.

Find out more about Lena Ladakh:
@lena.ladakh