Carpet

Small description

Homemade carpet weaving develops in the Fergana Valley, Nurata Mountains, Kashkadarya, Surkhandarya, Syrdarya regions, Karakalpakstan. The Uzbek carpet weaving centers for production and marketing are also Samarkand, Urgut, Kokand and Khorezm.

The Khiva factory is very popular for making carpets. Here the production of portrait carpets was opened, the tradition of which was known in the early Middle Ages.

Depending on the region, Uzbek carpets differ in color and ornament. For example, black, red and blue hues predominate in Samarkand carpets. Long-bodied Bukhara carpets are full of multicolored patterns. Fergana carpets have red and blue stripes. Khiva carpets are mainly made from vegetable patterns.

Eastern carpets live long lives. As for actual pieces of art, they change owners, are inherited, bought for good money, get expensive within time and thought to be a gorgeous gift. The real silk carpet can live for several centuries watching how time changes in silence. Its colors do not fade but become brighter, its mate shine becomes golden within time.

In the East, from the ancient times' carpets were not an only simple functional piece of the interior creating a cosy atmosphere in a house but due to high price they were a sign of wealth and prosperity of a family and only rich people could afford them.

The largest collection of carpets amounting about 10,000 pieces could be found at Ark Fortress, a citadel of Emirs of Bukhara. The aristocracy did not fall behind the emirs and had carpets for all cases – for gifts and prayers, for own walls and floors. Marco Polo was astonished by Middle Asian carpets and said that the thinnest and most beautiful carpets were woven here.

Across the centuries, a carpet kept its symbolism and a sign of wealth and prosperity of a family and even today it is a gift to every just marries a couple in Uzbekistan.

Carpet is not just a beautiful design, it is a tradition, symbolism, and protection. When scrutinizing carpets, you can see all the peculiarities of world perception in different regions of Uzbekistan, favorite patters and sense of the ornament.

Large carpet weaving factories can be found in Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva, Tashkent, and Fergana Valley, as well as household carpet weaving in various regions of Uzbekistan, with different color patterns characteristic of a particular region.