Your first visit to the kothi
Where to find us near Hall Bazaar, how long to allow, and what we will show you.
The lohi: Punjab’s everyday shawl
The large plain wool wrap older men in Punjab wear all winter, and how it is made in Amritsar.
Walk through any village in Majha in January and you will see older men wrapped in a lohi: a large, plain, heavy wool shawl, usually in oatmeal, grey or brown, worn over a kurta and often over the head too. It is the most ordinary shawl in Punjab, and our oldest product.
A lohi is woven from local Punjabi or Rajasthani wool, which is coarser than merino and much warmer. Ours come from two small weaving units on the edge of Amritsar. The wool is washed, carded and spun on machines, then woven on power looms in a plain or slightly ribbed weave. Each lohi is about 250 × 125 cm and weighs around 700 g.
The finish matters. A good lohi is lightly milled after weaving, which closes the weave and gives it a soft surface. The edges are bound with a narrow woven stripe, usually brown, so they do not fray.
A lohi is meant to be worn hard: to sleep in on a cold train, to sit on at a village gathering. It wants a gentle wash once a winter, by hand in cold water. Many families pass them on for decades. We still sell more lohis each winter than anything else.
