Janet Rizvi, freelance writer and researcher graduated with a Ph.D. in History from Cambridge. She has spent many years in Jammu and Kashmir. She has contributed the chapter The Asian Trade in Kashmir Shawls to Textiles from India, The Global Trade (Rosemary Crill, ed., 2005); and is a contributor to The Encyclopaedia of World Dress and Fashion(forthcoming) 2009.Monisha Ahmed spent many years living among the Rupshu-pa - the nomadic herdspeople of Ladakh's southeastern high-altitude plateaux - researching their lifestyle with special reference to their textiles. Her book, Living Fabric, Weaving among the Nomads of Ladakh Himalaya (2002), based on her Oxford D Phil thesis, won the 2003 Shep award of the Textile Society of America for the best book on ethnic textiles.