Why is shahtoosh banned?

Shahtoosh (also written Shahtush, a Persian Word meaning "king of fine wools") is the name given to a specific kind of shawl, which is woven with the down hair of the Tibetan Antelope (Chiru), by the weavers of Kashmir.The Chiru antelope live in one of the harshest environments on earth, at an altitude of over 5,000 metres. Their special type of down fur, which is both very light and warm, allows them to survive in the freezing conditions of the plateau where they gather at one point of the year. They are migratory animals - moving down from Mongolia to Tibet- and traditionally followed closely by the nomads who also make that journey every year. The nomads would hunt the antelope for all that it provided them - hide, meat, bones, horns and fur pelts - in short, everything that the nomads needed to sustain them through their journey.t is a long-perpetuated false claim, that nomads gathered Chiru down from rocks and bushes, after it was naturally shed.

The nomads had no use at all for the soft down - its incredible fineness making it virtually impossible to handle - and this is where the weavers of Kashmir played their role. With their experience in handling the finest hand-combed Pashmina wool, they could weave shawls of the most exquisite quality, and thus the Shahtoosh shawl was born.