CHITRAL: Rings made from yak horns are assuming the status of an industry due to their growing demand within the country and abroad, while their online marketing has also been started over the last couple of years on a large scale.

Rings have been a part and parcel of local jewellery since the time immemorial as it has been described in the folktales, but then these were made of the horns of markhor or ibex till a ban on their hunting was imposed in 1970s, after which yaks’ horns came to be used, particularly in Broghil and other parts of Upper Chitral.

Rehmat Aziz, a ring maker in New Bazaar, told Dawn that when he started the business 17 years ago, there were two to three shops in the city manufacturing rings of yak horns.

Himself belonging to Torkhow valley of Upper Chitral, he said that the craft had its origin in Torkhow, which had an abundance of ibex and makrhor in the olden times, ensuring the availability of horns on a large scale.

Craftsman says price of ring ranges from Rs1,000 to Rs12,000

He said there were certain villages in Torkhow where the craft formed the principal source of livelihood, where every member of a family is like a craftsman of finger ring ‘by birth’.

Mr Aziz said the craft is a tedious job in which the raw material goes through a series of processes ranging from soaking it in water for months to cutting, perforation, curving and carving as per design.

“The high price of the rings is due to the scarcity of the material and the amount of work it requires during its fabrication and preparation,” he said, adding the price of an ordinary ring starts from Rs1,000 going up to as high as Rs12,000.

“The horns of yak have certain physical properties due to which these can be fabricated into ring while the horns of other animals are too brittle and sensitive to endure the process, and also lack gleam,” he explained.

“The horns of ibex and markhor used to be ideally flexible with least degree of wastage on the basis of which only these were used for making rings when their hunting had not been banned by the government,” he said.

Mr Aziz said that apart from the finger rings, many more ornaments were also fabricated from the yak horns, including necklaces and earrings, which are becoming popular among the women coming from other parts of the country.

“The industry of ring making nearly came to an end in 1970s when the hunting of ibex and markhor were declared illegal and the craftsmen found the horns of yak as the substitute,” he said.

Sitting in his shop, Mr Aziz works for 12 hours daily and hardly prepares three to four rings a day. He migrated here from Upper Chitral and by dint of his craftsmanship, he now owns his own house in Chitral town.

The craftsman said that a tourist coming to Chitral finds the rings as an attractive gift for loved ones. These are easily available in every general store apart from the gift shops of the city and Kalash valleys.

Mr Aziz said that a good number of young men in the city have started online businesses of marketing the rings and the allied ornaments through social media platforms, getting demands from the European countries, the US and the Middle East.

Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2025