Oriental and Tibetan Rugs

The term “hand-knotted rugs” can evoke different images.  We think of magical “flying carpets” and stories from “A Thousand and One Arabian Nights“ – but the term may also evoke images of dark, dreary rooms filled with little children hunched over their looms.

 Child labor is a subject sure to carry a lot of emotion.  We do not pretend to have all the answers to this age-old problem, but would like to share some of our thoughts and experiences.

First, some black and white facts:

 Fact:  many situations are inherently bad.  Anything involving abduction, slavery, forced removal of children from their parents, sexual exploitation, or indentured servitude is just evil. 

 Fact:  About one-fifth of the world’s 6 billion people live in abject, absolute poverty.  It is hard for us to comprehend the grinding poverty and helplessness that leads parents to put their children to work in horrible conditions, but the reality is these families rely upon child labor in order to just survive the day.  A few years ago, we were travelling by bicycle through Bhutan and rode by a group Indian families working on the sides of the roads.  By “working”, I mean every member of the family was breaking down rocks into smaller rocks for road gravel.  Children barely able to walk sat next to their parents; clutching “hammers” (larger rocks) pounding the ground.  What haunts me the most read more »

Chinese Rug ( Peonies & Butterflies)

The long and fascinating history hand knotted rugs has its roots in five countries; China, Egypt, India and Persia (now Iran).  Known collectively as Oriental rugs, their interest and value has continued for several centuries.

 China has a long tradition of weaving rugs – the first Chinese rugs originated in the north-west of the country in the area around Xinjiang.  About the time of the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC – 24 AD) the technique of rug making spread along the Silk Route extending from Qinghai, Gansu, Nigxia, Shenmu and Yulin to Inner Mongolia and Shanxi. Rug weaving later extended into other locations such as Peking (now Beijing), Tianjing, Hebei and Shandong, where their own distinctive styles evolved.

 However, the art of knotting rugs as we traditionally think of Oriental rugs was not introduced until around the 15th and 17th century – but once this technique was introduced, it became the new standard.

 Traditional Chinese hand knotted rugs were normally made from wool but northern nomads would also use goat and camel hair.  Early on, Chinese weavers found that silk had special qualities that gave nuances of color as the light source changed.

The patterns in classic Chinese rugs are often taken from the patterns of the porcelain painters and from silks, and the designs typically followed other established art forms.  These are typically Buddhist and Taoist symbols including the lotus flower, clouds, dragons, phoenix, elephants, horses, and bats.  (The bat shares its name with the Chinese word for luck and is a popular symbol of good fortune.)  These designs are largely symbolic rather than purely decorative and the traditional colors include black, blue, red, white, beige and yellow.

 In the 1980’s the Oriental market was in a state of decline in China as well as the rest of the world as aniline dyes, machine-spun wool, and poor quality dominated the market.  At that time, a group of men sparked a “renaissance” in the modern rug market by returning to the traditional labor intensive method of rug making using vegetable or high quality chrome dyes and superior hand spun wools and silks. 

 China was involved with this renaissance and several weaving centers were opened up in China dedicated to producing high quality hand knotted rugs.  The patterns on these rugs can vary with the weavers producing both traditional classic Chinese patterns in traditional colors, and also branching out in to new designs suited to modern tastes.

Please let me know your thoughts in the comment section above.