Pashmina is a fibre, not a technique
Pashmina is the fine undercoat of the Changthangi goat, which lives at high altitude in Ladakh and on the Tibetan plateau. The animal grows it to survive winters that reach −40°C, and it is combed out — not sheared — when the goat moults in spring.
What makes it valuable is diameter. Pashmina fibre runs roughly 12–16 microns; fine merino wool is around 17–24. Below about 16 microns the human skin stops registering the fibre as prickly, which is the entire reason a pashmina shawl feels the way it does.
This matters because "pashmina" is used loosely to mean "soft shawl". A shawl can be beautifully woven, beautifully embroidered, and not be pashmina at all.
The tests that actually mean something
Ask for the micron count and for a lab report. Textile testing laboratories measure fibre diameter directly, and a seller dealing in genuine pashmina will have had it done. A number without a report behind it is a claim, not evidence.
Look at the weave under good light. Handwoven pashmina has small irregularities in the weft — the density varies fractionally because a human is throwing it. A perfectly even machine weave is not automatically fake, but it is not handwoven either, and those are different products at different prices.
Check the fringe. On traditional handwoven pieces the fringe is the warp itself, hand-knotted at the ends. A fringe that has been sewn on separately tells you the body of the shawl was cut from a longer bolt.
The tests that do not
The ring test — that real pashmina passes through a wedding ring — is repeated everywhere and proves almost nothing. A very fine, loosely woven synthetic will pass through a ring easily. A dense, heavily embroidered genuine pashmina will not. It measures thinness and weave density, not fibre.
The burn test is destructive, unreliable in the hand, and easy to misread: wool and silk both smell of burnt hair and both self-extinguish. You are also, at that point, setting fire to something you were considering buying.
Softness alone is not diagnostic either. Modern viscose and modal are extremely soft, and softness can be temporarily added to almost any fibre with a chemical finish that washes out.
What certification marks do and do not cover
India operates a Geographical Indication register, and some Kashmiri handicrafts are registered under it. A GI mark certifies origin and adherence to a registered process — where something was made, and by what method.
It is not a quality grade. Two registered shawls can differ substantially in fineness, in the density of the work, and therefore in price. Treat any such mark as a floor, not a ranking — and treat its absence as telling you nothing either way. Plenty of excellent work carries no mark at all, including ours.