The saffron town of Kashmir
Pampore
For a few weeks each autumn the fields near Srinagar turn purple with the crocus that gives saffron.
Why Pampore is crocus purple
Pampore lies just south of Srinagar in the Kashmir valley. Its raised, well-drained fields are the centre of saffron growing in India. The spice comes from a small crocus that flowers for two or three weeks from late October. The petals are pale purple. Inside each flower are three deep red threads, the stigmas, which are picked by hand and dried. It takes a very large number of flowers to make a kilogram, which is why saffron is so costly. In water or milk the red threads give a golden yellow. Kashmir saffron has had a geographical indication since 2020. The area under the crop has shrunk in recent decades, a worry for growers.
Values are fair approximations of what the eye sees there, not measurements.
Colours tied to Pampore
Written by the Rang desk with AI assistance. Background: "Pampore" on Wikipedia. If you know Pampore and we have it wrong, tell us.
More colour cities
All colour cities
๐ฎ๐ณ The Blue CityJodhpurOld-city houses washed in blue crowd the foot of Mehrangarh Fort, on the edge of the Thar Desert.
๐ฎ๐ณ The Pink CityJaipurThe walled city wears a dusty terracotta pink, first painted on for a royal visit in 1876 and kept ever since.
๐ฎ๐ณ The White CityUdaipurWhite palaces and whitewashed houses stand around lakes in the Aravalli hills of southern Rajasthan.
๐ฎ๐ณ The Golden CityJaisalmerA fort and town built of yellow sandstone that glows like honey at sunset, deep in the Thar Desert.
๐ฎ๐ณ City of saffron and lightVaranasiSaffron robes, marigold garlands and oil lamps colour the river steps of one of the oldest living cities.
๐ฎ๐ณ Town of Holi coloursVrindavanFor Holi the temple town of Krishna's childhood fills with clouds of pink, yellow and green powder.Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Jodhpur In: Lavpatel2008, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Jaipur In: Chainwit., CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Udaipur In: Gerd Eichmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Jaisalmer In: Vyacheslav Argenberg, CC BY 4.0, source
- Varanasi In: Marcin Biaลek, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Vrindavan In: Biswarup Ganguly, CC BY 3.0, source