carpet cellar pdf

7/29/2019 Carpet Cellar pdf

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The

Carpet CellarExperience the exquisite Craftsmanship


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More than any other craft or art for m, the handmaderug has survived the onslaught of industrialization

and is now in g reater demand than ever, and at TheCarpet Cellar one can witness a range of hand-

woven & hand knotted masterpieces, carefullyselected and acquired for their uniqueness and

brilliant draughtmanship for over 3 decades by a

single person.

Mr. Sheel Chandras private collection at TheCarpet Cellar reveals the range of styles and

designs that the words oriental carpet standsfor. Representing the culture of a vast area

stretching from the Black Sea eastward to Chinaincluding Mongolia, the erstwhile Soviet Union,

Tibet, Turkey, Mesopotamia, Persia, Afghanistan,Baluchistan, Egypt & Morocco and India as well,

the Carpet cellar is the place where you can see the

effects of socio-economic developments affectingthe weaving tradition of a region.

Experience the floral motifs and finer weaves

of the workshop carpets that reflected the tasteof the courts versus the geometric patterns of

the nomadic tribal depicting unknown heraldicsymbols & distinguished by the different motifs,

color combinations, styles of knotting, warp, weft

etc., Each carpets represents the weaving traditionof a particular tribe or centre & all of them are

hand knotted and vegetable dyed.Often borrowedby leading museums from around the world for

exhibitions, these carpets are unique pieces - each inits own frame, with its own subtlety & complexity.

Some carpets represent gardens to remind theuser of the pleasures of paradise, or of spring,

while they kept the floor warm in winter, othersdepict hunting scenes, floral & animal motifs and

geometrical & lattice patterns. There are still

others with verses found in borders, culled fromworks of leading poets or composed by unknown

writers for a particular carpet.

Whatever the dreams & vision of the craftsmenor the reasons for which these rugs were woven

Preface

which More than any other craft or art form,the handmade rug has survived the onslaught of

industrialization and is now in greater demand thanever, and at The Carpet Cellar one can witness a

range of hand-woven & hand knotted masterpieces,carefully selected and acquired for their uniqueness

and brilliant draughtmanship for over 3 decades by

a single person.

Experience the floral motifs and finer weavesof the workshop carpets that reflected the taste

of the courts versus the geometric patterns ofthe nomadic tribal depicting unknown heraldic

symbols & distinguished by the different motifs,color combinations, styles of knotting, warp, weft

etc., Each carpets represents the weaving traditionof a particular tribe or centre & all of them are

hand knotted and vegetable dyed.Often borrowed

by leading museums from around the world forexhibitions, these carpets are unique pieces - each in

its own frame, with its own subtlety & complexity.Some carpets represent gardens to remind the

user of the pleasures of paradise, or of spring,while they kept the floor warm in winter, others

depict hunting scenes, floral & animal motifs andgeometrical & lattice patterns. There are still others

with verses found in borders, culled from works of

leading poets or composed by unknown writers fora particular carpet.

Whatever the dreams & vision of the craftsmen or

the reasons for which these rugs were woven whichrange from trade, dowry, prayer, commissioning

by aristocrats or a simple need to cover a tentfloor, each piece is most handsomely designed and

conceived.

From the finest classic carpets of the Safavid period

in Persia, to the wonderful varieties and charmingtextures of the Moghul Indian carpets to further

still the kilims, saddlebags and ornamentation ofcamels & horses during ceremonial occasions, The

Carpet Cellar is a rare representation of the art oforiental weaving at its best. We import the finest

Acknowledgment

Although no specimens for before the 16th centuryhave survived, we do know from literary sources

that in very early times, several local tribes andthose of Seljuk origin were already making carpets

in different regions of Persia.

First the Ilkhanid dynasty (1256-1353) of Mongol

origin and later the Timurid dynasty (c. 1360-1405)from Central Asia brought a high refinement to the

art of miniatures and bookbinding and introducedChinese symbols as stylistic elements. Thus they

influenced local carpet making, as documented byprecious miniatures for the 14th and 15th centuries

that depict geometric carpets very similar to theAnatolian carpets of the Seljuk period. Such

specimens have borders decorated toth Kuficscript and fields decorated with stars, octagons

or inter lacery stretching across the whole field;

sometimes, the fields are sectioned into squaresor octagons, such as in the small pattern Hilbeins.

The first signs of a new style were already makingtheir appearance at he end of the 15th century, but

it was following the rise of the Safavid dynasty(1502-1722) that the Persian carpet truly achieved

its independence.depict geometric carpets dynas inde pendence.


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Contents

1 Origin and history of carpets 001

2 Construction 002

3 Persian carpets 003

4 Indian carpets 004

5 Central asian carpets 0056 New carpets 006

7 Kilims 007

8 Saddlebags and tents 008

9 Textiles and jamawar shawls 009

10 Maintenance and guidelines 010

merino wool from Australia and New Zealand,

which are actually used to manufacture suiting andthus possess a silk like sheen. We have engaged

the finest weavers from Kashmir and U.P whosefamilies have been engaged in this form of art

for generations, to recreate these exquisite pieces.We are thus trying to revive the original Indian

patterns to their long lost glory.

To partake a piece of this unique tradition or merely

browse through an overwhelming collection -perhaps the largest personal one of its kind in India

- The Carpet Cellar is now open to all. range fromtrade, dowry, prayer, commissioning by aristocrats

or a simple need to cover a tent floor, each piece is

most handsomely designed and conceived.

From the finest classic carpets of the Safavid periodin Persia, to the wonderful varieties and charming

textures of the Moghul Indian carpets to furtherstill the kilims, saddlebags and ornamentation of

camels & horses during ceremonial occasions, TheCarpet Cellar is a rare representation of the art of

oriental weaving at its best. We import the finestmerino wool from Australia and New Zealand,

which are actually used to manufacture suiting andthus possess a silk like sheen. We have engaged

the finest weavers from Kashmir and U.P whose

families have been engaged in this form of artfor generations, to recreate these exquisite pieces.

We are thus trying to revive the original Indianpatterns to their long lost glory.

To partake a piece of this unique tradition or

merely browse through an overwhelming collection- perhaps the largest personal one of its kind in

India - The Carpet Cellar is now open to all.


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and symbols of the emperor, ready to conquer the

flaming pearl (purity). This carpet type, intended

to serve auspicious purposes, is important and

the most typical of this region. In India, carpetswere mainly used for prayers back in the late 17th

century. In this type of mille fleurs prayer rug, the

Mogul style renders the symbolic tree of life as a

naturalistic flowering bush.

In the Antique carpets there are two further

categories, namely the Workshop carpets which

were made in big towns and cities and Tribal rugs

which were made in villages.

Workshop carpets are made in big towns and cities

and are possibly even made for resale by master

weavers. These are generally floral in designs and

are called curvilinear patterns. These are woven in

high knot counts and are extremely ornate. Tribal

rugs are woven by illiterate tribal nomads who move

from place to place on horses and camels. They

make these carpets for their own tribal tents and

are generally rectilinear designs or have abstract

geometrical designs. They are woven on portable

looms in which the width of the loom is restricted

and hence tribal rugs are generally small in size.

Each weaving centre has its own designs, colors,

knotting and look. The dating and provenance of

each carpet can be ascertained depending upon

these various factors. A design that is made in

Kashmir is different from patterns made in Agra, or

Jaipur. Also, the type of knots can be very different

as there are many styles to choose from. As yet it

is difficult to point out when the first carpet and

the art of carpet making originated, the general

areas demarcated where the carpets may have been

first produced are the Persia (Iran), Turkmenistan,central Asia Mongolia and China referred to as the

Carpet belt.

Chinese and Tibetan rugs were of entirely different

style and design. They featured the symbols of

Buddhist and Taoist religions. In India, the art

of woolen carpets was there as early as the 5th

century BC but the more famous Persian carpet art

came with the Mogul Emperor Akhbar. This artof carpet weaving was obtained from the Persian

artists and modified to Indian Royal tastes.

The carpets were at one point so highly regarded

and valued that they were considered better than

money. According to a legend, the great Egyptian

Queen Cleopatra actually presented herself to

Caesar - rolled up inside a carpet. Marco Polo

discovered some of the earliest fine Orientals in

the 13th century whilst traveling in Persia. He can

be given the credit of introducing the craft outside

the carpet belt.

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Origin & history of carpets

The origin can be traced back to the Neolithic age

of 7000 B.C. Certain products of the era consisting

of warp and weft were textile resembling flat

weave kilims have been found. After that, the rugs

were created by forming knots to make a pile. It isanticipated by

the researchers that they may have originated

in the dry steppe regions inhabited by the

nomads.

The nomadic tribes of the region did carpet

weaving. They instead of slaughtering theiranimals wove their wool into carpets. The carpets

were spread on their tent floors or hung from the

walls to provide protection against the creeping

insects and dirt and insulated the tent to an extent

against the cold. They were even used as seat covers

or saddlebags or to sleep or to pray on. The rugs

and carpets were woven with the patterns depicting

flowers, animals and trees, their culture, tradition

and religious beliefs.

One of the earliest carpets till date has been found

in the tomb of a Scythian Prince in Southern Siberia

and it dates back to the 5th century BC. This region

is inhabited by the followers of Islam and so the

carpets play an important role in Islamic culture aswell as in religion. From a thing of utility as floor

or bed coverings at the time of origin they have

become a thing of e xotic decoration and class.

There is one primary thing to understand about theancient carpets is that they were generally created

in the labor of love and not manufactured with

the intention to resell them.

Broadly categorizing, there are two main types

of carpets based on the dates of origin. These

two categories are The Antique Carpets and The

New Carpets. The antique carpets are all o riginally

manufactured in Persia (Iran), Turkey, Afghanistan,

Turkman, China and India. Each carpet is named

after the city, town or village that it is made in. Each

city or village has a certain reputation for weaving

carpets, some are better than others.

From Northwestern Persia, the medallion carpets

with hunting scene designs date back to 1522.Known simply as hunting carpets, these very rare

specimens are recognizable by their scenes depicting

armed horsemen fighting wild beasts. Also from

the Persian region is the Kashan arabesque carpet

from the early 20th century. The Kashan Carpets

are recognizable by their soft and fluid style, as

well as by their elaborate, densely decorated fields.

Carpets with floral decoration were common in

northern India since the beginning of the 19th

century. Chinese carpets from the 18th century with

symbolic motifs are largely dominated by dragons,

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A. Symmetrical knot, also known improperly as the Ghiordes, orTurkish, knot: The yarn is looped around both warp threads, thenthe two ends are drawn out to protrude between the threads. Thispair of free ends forms a tuft of the pile. (13) Knot shown incross section and in perspective views following three possibleinclinations; (4) two consecutive knots tied between two rows ofweft; (5) the jufti, or false, symmetrical knot.B. Asymmetrical knot, also known improperly as the Senneh orPersian knot: The yarn is wound around one warp thread and thenlooped behind and around the other, leaving the two ends of thetuft separated by the one free thread; depending on which thread iswrapped, knots are said to be open to the left or to the right. (13)Knot shown in cross section and in perspective views followingthree possible inclinations; (4) two consecutive knots tied betweentwo rows of weft; (5) the jufti, or false, asymmetrical knot.C. The single-warp, or Spanish, knot: The yarrtis wrapped around asingle warp thread, using alternate ones, bringing the two free endsof the knot to either side of the warp chain.D. Vertical loom with adjustable bench and fixed beams (left) andvertical loom with rotating beams (right), which permits the weaverto remain stationary.E. Diagrams showing the twist of fibers, which is useful in

determining a carpets origin. Fibers twisted clockwise result ina Z yarn, while fibers twisted counterclockwise result in an 5yarn.F. Diagrams of the flat-weave techniques of kilims (slit technique,left) and soumaks (looped weft technique, right).Right, detail of the back of a carpet: A close examination is importantin learning how to appreciate as well as appraise the refinement ofthe knotting, because the smaller the knots and the greater thedensity of the knotting, the greater the value of the carpet.G. The fringes consist of the ends of the warp threads,which arecut from the loom and then tied or knotted in various ways. Theyrepresent the final phase in the making of a carpet. From left toright: Knotted, twisted and braided fringes; the last diagram on theright shows a carpet without fringes.Below, detail of a Kerman carpet with floral decoration. Persia, late1 9th century. Private collection. The manufacture of a carpet in silkincreases its value and refinement with its denser knotting.

BLUES :

Indigo Leaves Blue

Indigo (DyersWood)

Leaves Blue

YELLOWS:

Spurge RootYellow

Onion Skin Yellow/BrownishYellow

St Johns Wort All, save roots Yellow

Tanners black Leaves Yellow/BrownSumach

Buckthorn Berries IntenseYellow

DyersCamomile Flowers Yellow

WildCamomile

Flower Yellow

Camomile Flowers Yellow

Saffron Stigma Yellow/Orange

Dyers Weed All, save roots Bright yellow

Sage Stem, leaves Yellow

Dyers Sumach Wood Yellow/Orange

Bastard hemp All BrilliantYellow

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Construction

Materials

Wool, cotton and silk are the primary materialsfor carpets. Because of its availability throughout

the Orient, wool (from sheep, goats or less durable

camel hair) is the most widely used fiber for carpetmaking. In antique carpets, especially those made

by nomadic tribes, wool was used for both thepile and the foundation. Cotton, a strong fiber, is

suitable for the underlying foundation. It was alsoused in the pile to create white areas. Since it is the

crop of a cultivated plant, however cotton is notfound in the carpets produced by nomadic tribes.

Because of its soft quality and shine, silk is the

most precious of the materials, used mainly in thepile, alone or combined with wool, exclusively by

specialized city workshops. Wool, cotton and silkare spun into yarn by twisting the fibers.

Type of Knots

Generally speaking, the carpets are considered tobe better if the knot counts are higher as calculated

per square inch. The higher the knots, the finer thedefinition and thus more clearer the pattern. The

carpets can be made in curvilinear designs (floral)that appear very intricate and are hence more

costlier as they take more time and need betterskilled craftsman. There are two basic kinds of

knot which were used throughout the orient: the

symmetrical knot, also known as the Ghiordes, or

the Turkish knot, because it was used mainly inTurkey; and the asymmetrical knot, also known asthe Senneh. A variant of these two systems is the

jufti knot. It is also known as the false knot because,although derived from a Khorasan practice where

it was used for relief effects, the jufti knot served inmodern production to increase the weaving speed,

resulting in less durable carpets.

Dyes

The dyes used generally in the olden days were

all natural extracted out of plants, rocks,

minerals and sometimes even insects such as

cochineal or laq. The advantage with natural

dyes was that they did not generally fade and

last a lifetime. Natural dye colors are derived from

the following elements :

REDS :

Madder Root Reds/various

Cochineal Insect Blue/red

Lac Insect Pink

Kermes Insect Red

Safflower Flower head Red/yellow

Cudbear Lichen Red

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ORANGES :

Orange is made by combining red and yellow dyes;

madder, not cochineal, is used for the red colorant.

Quercetin produces a very bright orange, apigenin

less brilliant, and luteolin results in a reddish

orange. The dried leaves of henna are popular for

dyeing wool.

PURPLES :

Purple or violet is made by combining red and blue.

The woolen yarn is first dyed with indigo and then

by either madder or cochineal. The purple found

in most Anatolian kilims contains no indigo, but

is derived instead from two madder dyes using an

iron mordant.

GREENS :

Green is produced by mixing yellow and blue. The

various yellow dyes combined with indigo or indigo

sulphonic acid result in differing tones of green.

Pistachio and olive leaves produce a light green.

BROWNS :

Brown is most often derived from walnut husks.

These make a direct dye which is easy to use.

Natural brown wool is also abundant.

BLACKS :

Black is achieved by combining plants with a tannin

content with iron. This introduction of iron and

the processing necessary damages the wool, so

that it tends to corrode with time. Plant sources of

tannin are the knobbly oak of the Quercus family,

oak apples, tanners sumach, and the skin of the

pomegranate.

WHITES :

Cotton is used to achieve a pure white, and natural

wool yields an ivory white

The colors used were plenty and one could u se

up to fifty colors in one carpet. In those days just

dyeing the handspun yarn which has a much

better hand feel as compared with modern day

machine spun yarn could take up to six months

just to dye the wool. Today the same process is a

three week procedure.

Shade variations that are sometimes present in theground color of the carpet are called abrash. These

irregularities are caused by different degrees ofcolor absorption by the fibers or when skeins of

the same color, but from different baths, are used.Abrash may be a natural product of aging, or they

may be applied in the weaving process to givethe carpet a more handmade look; they may also

provide movement to the solid color of the groundwhen it is considered too uniform for the Oriental

taste. Hence, the Abrash should not be considered

a defect but an unusual technical and aestheticfeature.

ABRASH

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PERSIA

Persia was a cultural melting pot for variouscivilizations from the Mediterranean, the Middle

East, central Asia and even eastern Asia, exceptthat in Persia carpet making was more a redefined

art and a social tradition than an expression ofreligious belief. Although no specimens from before

the 16th century have survived, we do know from

literary sources that in very early times, severallocal tribes and those of Seljuk origin were already

making carpets in different regions of Persia. Firstthe Ilkhanid dynasty of Mongol origin and later

the Timurid dynasty from Central Asia broughta high refinement to the arts of miniatures and

book binding and introduced Chinese symbols asstylistic elements. Thus they influenced local carpet

making, that depict geometric carpets very similarto the Anatolian carpets of the Seljuk period. Such

specimens have borders decorated with Kufic script

and fields decorated with stars, octagons or inter-lacery stretching across the whole field; sometimes,

the fields are sectioned into squares or octagons,such as in the small pattern Holbeins. The first

signs of a new style were already making theirappearance at the end of the 15th century, but it

was following the rise of the Safavid dynasty thatthe Persian carpet truly achieved its independence.

There are different kinds of Persian carpets which

were named after the area that they were made in.

Waft away to glory

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Afshari

While rugs of this region are almost universally

attributed to the Afshari, a Turkic tribe, the ethnic

picture is far more complex. The Afshari are aminority population but they are considered to be

the most important.

The warp and weft of the rugs of this region havetraditionally been of wool, but recently cotton is

coming into the villages, it is now unclear just whatpieces are made by sedentary people and what by

nomads. Earlier, Afshari carpets were single wefted,but now virtually all are double wefted and were

most often dyed red. It is possible that among the

older rugs, the knot was used to distinguish village



from nomadic products. Presumably the Persian

villagers would have used the asymmetrical knotand the Turkic nomads the symmetrical knot. The

weave is generally of a medium density, tendingrecently toward the coar ser.

Afshari products are seldom larger than 56 X 7 and

have a striped kilim band at the ends or sometimes

a few rows of brocade. Pieces around 15 feet ormore in length often show European features in the

design, and many seem to be rural adaptations ofKerman city rugs. While these pieces are clearly

Afshari in terms of their wool foundation, colors,

and borders associated with tribal sources, mosthave asymmetrical knots and depressed alternate

warps. The sides are often finished with a reinforcedovercast in alternating bands of varying colors.

There is great variation in design, and many motifs

found elsewhere are given a fresh approach. Another

common design consists of lozenge-shaped panels,arranged diagonally across the rug and filled with

stylized flowers, remotely suggestive of some olderKerman patterns. Medallion designs are common,

particularly those with flowers and a stylized vaseat each end of the field. These do not appear to

be original designs so much as crude, rural adapta-

tions of city rugs, although this in no way detractsfrom their charm

Kashan

Kashan lies about halfway between Tehran and

Isfahan, and has been a major center of tex tile pro-duction. More than any other major Iranian city,

Kashan is an oasis, surrounded by g ravel plains too

arid for farming and standing near no river. Thearea receives its water from abundant springs in

the Kuh-i-Sefid, which issue five miles north ofKashan in the town of Fin and these springs have

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Alternate warps may be slightly depressed. The

color tonalities were somber until the introductionof bright synthetic dyes. Classically the Baluchi

was woven in deep blues, rust reds, dark brown,and black, with occasional bits of yellow, orange,

and green, and a sparing use of white, mostly foroutlining.

Baluchi rugs of Iran and Afghanistan show enoughsimilarities that they are best described here under

the same general heading. It is probable that untila century ago the rugs were so alike that they could

not be distinguished by their country of origin.Late nineteenth-century pieces were also much the

same in quality, but now the typical Persian Baluchi

has become a finer fabric, although the Afghan typemay well be truer to the original model.

Kerman

With numerous weaving villages in its vicinity,

Kerman has long been one of the major carpet pro-ducing areas of Persia. Its geographical position

distanced the city from the usual commercial

channels, except for the ancient caravan route toIndia. This, and the arid climate, has made Kerman

the poorest of the five major provinces of Iran.Development of the carpet industry is poorly

documented in Kerman, as elsewhere, althoughthere is clear evidence that weaving occurred

during Safavid times. Kerman textiles of varioustypes thus developed to meet the pre-vailing

styles demanded by commerce. A large and spec-

tacular Kerman carpet in a garden design - whichquite possibly dates from as early as the sixteenth

century - is displayed in the Central Museum inJaipur, where there is evidence that it was brought

from Persia in the early seventeenth century. This,and several other Kerman carpets, was for several

centuries in the collection of the maharajas ofJaipur.

The pattern of Kerman rugs is usually curvilinear

floral and medallion motifs. They also carry animal

motifs and repetitive patterns. Some have thepictorials that are said to be too realistic for a carpet.

Kerman rugs are woven in a variety of intricatedesigns from cartoons. The colors generally have

softer hues. They are soft red, green, blue, yellow

and ivory. The antique and semi-antique r ugs havered and blue combinations. The introductions of

pastel colors like turquoise, orange, champagneand beige are more contemporary. They are made

of fine, lustrous wool knotted with the Persianknots. They are generally large in size but smaller

ones are also available. The wrap and weft are ofcotton and pile of wool, they are not very thick and

have a soft texture. The knotting is medium to highquality with 130 to 840 knots per square inch.

Qashgai

The Qashqai people speak a Turkish dialect similarto that of Azerbaijan, and there is evidence that

they are, at least partially, Seljuk remnants whoentered Fars from the north during the thirteenth

century, possibly to avoid the Mongols. Several

sources quote the tradition that the word Qashqaiderives from the Turkic verb qachmak, to flee, in

reference to their flight from the Mongols. Thereis much conflicting information in print about the

Qashqai sub tribes, and there have been periodicfluctuations in the importance of various groups.

Qashqai rugs are, as one would expect, are allwool, usually with ivory warps and often with

dark or red-dyed wefts. There have been times

when some rugs from the Qashqai workshop havebeen woven on cotton. The typical Qashqai rug

is asymmetrically knotted, and only the gabbehsare ordinarily symmetrically knotted. The edges


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supported one of the earliest known settlements

on the Iranian plateaun.

The more abundant wool rugs of Kashan are lessdistinctive. Still, they are among the most tightly

woven Persian rugs, averaging 196 knots to thesquare inch, there are finer grades as well. As

would be expected, Kashans are asymmetrically

knotted on a cotton foundation, except for a smallnumber of earlier pieces with silk warps. The wefts

are often dyed blue.

The first carpets in the 1890s resembled the Sarokof its time, with some stiffness to the drawing.

This soon gave way to styles suggestive of the

Kerman tradition, with naturalistically drawnfloral designs. The field was usually covered with

decorative motifs, while the ground color usuallya madder red or indigo. Some ivory ground pieces

are also found.

Work in Kashan is carried out in homes ratherthan workshops with the weaving done almost

exclusively by the women. A high level of qualityis maintained, whether the rugs originate within

the city or in surrounding villages, although thereare some villages that specialize in a lower grade

of rug, which was traditionally marketed under the

label Aroon.

Baluchi

The historical references to Baluchis occur in the

10th century when they first inhabited an area

south of Kerman. But the Baluchi rugs reaching



Western markets, however, are ordinarily made

several hundred miles to the north of Baluchistan,

in Khurasan and northwestern Afghanistan byBaluchi people who live there. Rugs of the Baluchi

tribesmen are often so distinctive that they canrecognized at a glance. The area inhabited by the

rug making Baluchis is also home to a number ofother people of substantially different ethnic origins

but close enough culturally to make similar rugs.Over the years their work has often been labeled as

Baluchi, but the last several decades have witnessed

a laborious process of sor ting and classifying largenumbers of rugs.

A classic Baluchi rug is a relatively thin, narrow,

loose fabric, with a wool foundation that containssome goat hair. The sides are usually formed of

a three- or four-cord selvage of dark goat hair.Small dowry rugs and a type of pillow known as

a balisht are among the finest Baluchi pieces andmay contain silk.

They are usually double wefted and asymmetrically

knotted, the ends are finished with a long kilimband decorated with stripes of plain weave.

The knotting varies from about 40 knots to thesquare inch to well above 150 in the best pieces.

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are often finished with a barbers pole overcast in

several different colors, at times with extra tasselsof colored wool. There may be a narrow, striped,

plain weave band at both ends. The Qashguli fabricis probably both the finest, and the easiest to dis-

tinguish, as it consistently has asymmetrical knotswith deeply depressed alternate warps, red wefts,

and a fine weave. At least during the last century,most Qashguli work has probably not been at all

nomadic, as workshops have been established wheremany Qashguli live year round.

Khotan

What one notices most prominently about Khotanand the other cities along the fringes of the Takla

Makan is that they are indeed isolated oases, sepa-rated by large stretches of terrain so barren and

forbidding that one wonders how the desert wasever crossed by camel caravan. The edge of the

oasis is a line. On one side there is greenery, and

on the other utter desolation, often enveloped ina dusty haze that limits visibility. The water for

this miracle comes from rivers bringing snow-meltfrom the nearby mountains, and there is sufficient in

Khotan to irrigate an area about 30 by 40 miles. Inthis setting, with great groves of poplar trees inter-

spersed among abundant crops, there are a num-ber of separate cities and towns with a population

currently estimated at 1.4 million. Khotan city

itself contains perhaps one tenth of this total.

What this means in terms of rug production is

that Khotan is not so much a city as a region. It islarge enough that there can be substantial diversity

in weaving techniques from one town to the next,depending upon the particular setting in which

weaving takes place. There are more than 30 carpet

factories, and there are hundreds of Uighur homeshave between two and five active looms each. In

one home with three large looms, carpets normallyhave blue fields and the traditional pomegranate

design is usually attributed to Yarkand. Half adozen others of the same type were in use within

the household, and the pomegranate design has a

special meaning to wool wefts, passing three timesbetween the rows of knots. The weavers felt that

cotton was a better weft material.

Conversely, the largest of the factories was pro-ducing rugs in designs unrecognizable as being

from Eastern Turkestan. Another revealed rugsmade of locally grown silk in Persian designs;

some were described as 300 and 350 lines per foot.It soon became clear that within the confines of

the Khotan Oasis there was still substantial carpetweaving. Not one technique or design dominated,

and there seemed to be a clear differentiation

between material woven for the official carpetsell- market. Almost certainly there has long been

a variety of designs and structures used in thevarious towns and villages of the Khotan Oasis.



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The Carpet Cellar

A : 1, Anand Lok, Khel Gaon Marg, Siri Fort Raod New Delhi, 110 049, IndiaP : +91 11 41641777/41741011/41741012 F : +91 11 26963664/26518891

E : [email protected], [email protected]

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