Namda and Gabba: Kashmir's Wool Rugs and Floor Coverings

Namda and gabba are two distinct Kashmiri wool floor-covering traditions, less internationally known than pashmina but built on a similar respect for wool and hand-craft — just applied underfoot instead of over the shoulders.

Namda: Felted, Not Woven

Namda is made through felting rather than weaving — wool fibres are matted together using moisture, heat, and pressure rather than being spun into thread and woven on a loom. The result is a dense, textured rug, often embroidered on top with wool thread in bright, bold patterns.

Gabba: Recycled Wool, Reimagined

Gabba rugs are traditionally made from repurposed wool blankets, felted and then embroidered with chain-stitch work — an early example of what we'd now call upcycling, turning worn woollen material into something new and decorative rather than discarding it.

Shared Embroidery Techniques

The chain-stitch embroidery used on gabba rugs is closely related to the Ari-work technique used on our pherans — the same hook-needle method, applied to a rug base instead of a garment.

Bold, Folk-Art Patterns

Where our pheran embroidery tends toward refined florals and paisleys, namda and gabba patterns often lean bolder and more folk-art in style — animals, geometric shapes, vivid colour blocking — a different aesthetic sensibility within the same broader craft tradition.

Practical and Decorative Both

Historically, these rugs served a genuinely practical purpose — wool flooring for cold homes, using materials that were already on hand — alongside their decorative value, unlike some crafts that developed purely for ornamental or export purposes.

Wool's Many Forms

Between namda, gabba, needlework shawls, and toosha, Kashmiri wool takes on a genuinely wide range of forms and techniques — felted, embroidered, finely woven — each suited to a different purpose, but all rooted in the same regional relationship with wool as a working material.