"Chitrali Pakol and Choga: The Story of Chitral's Cap and Coat"

The Chitrali pakol is the soft, flat-topped woollen cap with a rolled brim that has become a symbol of northern Pakistan, and the choga is the long, open-fronted woollen coat worn over it on formal days. Both are traditionally made from shu, Chitral's handwoven and felted wool cloth, known in Urdu as patti. In 2025 a hand-stitched Chitrali choga sold for up to about PKR 25,000, while machine-stitched ones cost far less.

Our Chitrali cap and crafts guide covers what to buy and how to shop. This post goes a step further back: where the pakol and choga come from, how the wool is turned into cloth, and how to tell a genuine piece from a copy.

Where does the pakol come from?

The pakol is often called the Chitrali cap, but its origin is a little further east. The scholar Willem Vogelsang, summarised on Wikipedia, traces it to the far north of Pakistan, around Gilgit and Astore, from where it spread to Chitral by the 19th century and then to Nuristan in Afghanistan late in that century. In Shina it is called kapalo khoi, and in Khowar khapol.

You may read that the pakol descends from the kausia, a cap worn by Alexander the Great's Macedonians. It is a popular story, but there is no evidence for the link. Vogelsang treats the pakol as a local design belonging to a wider family of similar caps worn across the mountain borderlands.

The cap spread far beyond Chitral in the 20th century. Chitrali traders set up Peshawar's Chitrali Bazaar in the late 1940s, beside Qissa Khwani, and sold the pakol to the rest of the country. In the 1980s it became the standard headgear of the Afghan mujahideen, most famously Ahmad Shah Massoud, which is why many people outside Pakistan now think of it as an Afghan cap.

What is a choga?

A choga, also spelled chugha or chogha and called shoqa in Khowar, is a long, loose coat with very long sleeves, worn open over ordinary clothes and fastened with no buttons. Versions of it were worn across Central Asia and at the Mughal court in the 17th century. In Chitral and Gilgit-Baltistan it survives as formal dress for Kho and Shina men, and Wikipedia's article on the garment describes it as a sign of respect and standing.

A Chitrali choga usually has embroidery on the collar and where the sleeves join the body. A choga in London's Horniman Museum, collected in 1947 by an acting commandant of the Chitral Scouts, has floral and tulip-head embroidery on the lapels, embroidered cuffs and rosettes outlined in silver thread. Newer ones are often plainer or decorated in coloured thread.

The choga is also Chitral's gift of honour, often presented to visiting dignitaries along with a pakol. When the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge flew into Chitral in October 2019, they were welcomed at the airport with Chitrali caps, and the Duke was given an embroidered cloak. Princess Diana had worn a Chitrali cap on her own visit in 1991.

How is shu cloth made?

Both the pakol and the choga start as shu. The Chitral heritage website Mahraka and the Endangered Material Knowledge Programme have documented each stage, and it is slow, shared work.

1. Shearing. Men shear the sheep and gather fodder for the winter.
2. Carding. Women clean and card the wool by hand, a stage called poshp domik, then clean it again so no grit or grass remains.
3. Spinning. The carded flakes are fed onto a spinning wheel and twisted into yarn.
4. Dyeing. Most shu is left in natural ivory, grey, brown or black. Brown is also dyed with walnut shells.
5. Weaving. The yarn is woven on a hand loom into long, narrow strips. Mahraka puts a single piece at about 20 to 25 days of work.
6. Felting. In a process called bohteek, the woven cloth is washed and trampled underfoot until the fibres mat together. This is what makes shu thick and windproof.
7. Tailoring. Tailors in Chitral town sew the strips into chogas, waistcoats and caps.

Mahraka names three local types of shu: Moghikan from Mogh village, Lasprikan from the Laspur valley, and ordinary Khowari shu woven across the district. The Garam Chashma side valley, Lotkuh, is one well-known weaving area. Researchers recorded the work in villages there, and the Horniman choga's cloth was woven and felted around Garam Chashma.

How a pakol is made

The finished cap has a flat, rounded top and a lower band that is rolled up to form the brim; unrolled, it can be pulled down over the ears in cold weather. An Arab News report from Peshawar's Chitrali Bazaar in 2019 described women in Chitral washing the wool and spinning thread, partly by hand and partly by machine, before it was woven into patti. Shopkeepers there said an ordinary cap could be made in about an hour and a special one took at least four.

Is the craft dying out?

Shu is in trouble. The Endangered Material Knowledge Programme and Mahraka both describe the weaving and felting as endangered: the weavers are getting older, fewer young people want to learn, and a changing climate affects herding. Much of what is sold as patti today is machine-made or blended with synthetic fibre, and plenty of it does not come from Chitral at all.

Prices show the gap. An Associated Press of Pakistan report from October 2025 found machine-stitched chogas at Peshawar's Chitrali Bazaar for about PKR 7,000 to 10,000, while hand-stitched chogas from Chitral sold for up to about PKR 25,000. The tailors interviewed said demand rises every winter. The same report described the traditional chain of shearing, spinning, weaving and dyeing with walnut husk, and noted that modern versions skip some of those steps.

How to buy a genuine pakol or choga

Ask, look and feel. Shopkeepers will usually tell you honestly which pieces are local handwoven shu and which are not, if you ask directly.

• Feel the cloth. Felted shu is dense, slightly rough and holds its shape. Thin, shiny or very soft cloth is usually machine-made or blended.
• Look at the inside. Handwoven cloth shows small irregularities in the weave. A perfectly even surface is a hint that it came off a power loom.
• Check the embroidery. Hand embroidery on a choga collar has slightly uneven stitches. Ask whether it was stitched in Chitral.
• Expect to pay more for hand-stitched. If a full choga is offered at the price of a machine-made one, it probably is one.
• Try the pakol on. Sizes vary. The brim should roll evenly and sit firmly without pressing.

Prices change every season, so ask in two or three shops before you buy and treat the 2025 figures above as a guide only.

Chitral or Peshawar?

Chitral town's bazaar is the obvious place to buy, close to the weavers, and our places to visit in Chitral guide covers the town. Peshawar's Chitrali Bazaar, opposite Qissa Khwani, has the largest choice in one street, and our Peshawar shopping guide covers the old-city bazaars. The UK government currently advises against all travel to Peshawar, and against all travel on the N45 road from Mardan to Chitral city through Dir and the Lowari Tunnel. Pakistani visitors still travel to both, but check local news before setting out, and foreign-passport holders should read their own government's advice, since ignoring it can void insurance.

Is a pakol or choga worth buying?

A pakol is cheap, light and genuinely useful: it keeps your head and ears warm on an evening in Mastuj or at Shandur, and it packs flat. It is one of the few souvenirs from the north that people actually wear afterwards.

A choga is a bigger decision. A hand-stitched one costs as much as a good winter coat, and it is formal dress rather than a jacket for the jeep. It makes sense as a gift for an elder, for a wedding, or as a piece of Chitral's craft to keep. If you want something practical in shu, a waistcoat is the middle ground. For more ideas on what to bring home from the north, see our Pakistani souvenirs guide, and our experiences page for cultural trips.

Frequently asked questions