A Lifetime in Kangri Weaving: Tral Craftsmen Share Their Journey & Challenges

A Lifetime in Kangri Weaving: Tral Craftsmen Share Their Journey & Challenges My name is Mohammad Abdul Mir. I have been working on weaving Kangri basket since I was eight or nine years old. My father also did this work now he has passed away. We work on this for the whole twelve months. Five marraiges I have taken care of with the earnings from this. We are happy with our work. Kangris take two hours to make plain ones and one whole day or two days to make if they are with design. We make different varieties of Kangris, said the craftman from Tral, Jammu & Kashmir. I have been doing Kangri work for thirty years, said another Craftman Ghulam Hassan Mir. In the village in Tral, people were making it in their homes and I used to go and see and from there I learnt this craft. It takes from two hours to even more than a day to weave Kangri baskets with design. We get Rs 400-500 in a day that takes care of our daily wage workers. The market for this is getting small. We even sold these for Rs 5 or Rs 6. Now younsters are not too keen on taking up this work. But we somehow ran this for 30 years. We hope this gets continued in the future too, said the Kangri craftsmen in Tral, Jammu & Kashmir.