Tibetan rug

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A small Tibetan sitting rug with traditional Gau (amulet) design, representative of the designs that are believed to be amongst the oldest on Tibetan carpets

Tibetan rug making is an ancient, traditional craft. Tibetan rugs are traditionally made from Tibetan highland sheep's wool, called changpel. Tibetans use rugs for many purposes ranging from flooring to wall hanging to horse saddles, though the most common use is as a seating carpet. A typical seat carpet measuring around 3ftx5ft (0.9m x 1.6m) is called a khaden.

The process of making tibetan rugs is unique in the sense that the knotting method is different from that used in other rug making traditions worldwide. With the introduction of modern technology some aspects of the rug making processes have been taken over by machine in many workshops, in particular yarn spinning and trimming of the pile after weaving. This is primarily because of cost, disappearance of knowledge etc. Nevertheless, the finest carpets are those still made in the traditional way, by hand.

With Tibet's occupation by Chinese communists during the 1950s, Tibetan refugees started migrating to India and Nepal. With them they also brought their knowledge of rug making. Currently in Nepal the rug business is one of the largest industries in the country and there are many rug exporters. Tibet also has weaving workshops, but the export side of the industry is relatively undeveloped compared with Nepal and India.

[edit] History

The carpet making industry in Tibet stretches back hundreds if not thousands of years, yet as a minor art it was not thought important enough to be mentioned in detail in early writings, aside from occasional references to small personal rugs owned by prominent religious figures. The first detailed accounts of Tibetan rug weaving come not from Tibetans but from foreigners who entered Tibet with Francis Younghusband’s military expedition of 1903-04. Both L Austine Waddell^[1] and Perceval Landon^[2] described a weaving workshop they encountered near Gyantse, en-route to Lhasa. Landon records “a large two-storied house with a courtyard entirely filled with the weaving looms of both men and women workers” and was highly complementary about the rugs which he described as “really beautiful things”. The workshop was owned and run by one of the local aristocratic families, and this pattern seems to have been the norm for organized weaving in Tibet at that time. Many simpler weavings for domestic use were made in the home, but dedicated workhops made the top quality decorated pile rugs that were an important economic product. The buyers were mostly wealthy families, particularly in Lhasa and Shigatse, and the monasteries. The monastic institutions housed thousands of monks, who sat on long, low platforms during religious ceremonies, that were nearly always covered in hand-woven carpets for warmth and comfort. Wealthier monasteries replaced these carpets regularly, providing income, or taking gifts in lieu of taxation, from hundreds or thousands of weavers.

From its heyday in the 19th and early 20th century the Tibetan carpet industry fell into serious decline in the second half of the 20th. Social upheaval that began in 1959 was later exacerbated by experiments with collectivization that left rural people with little time to weave, while effectively shutting down on of their main customers, the monasteries. Many of the aristocratic families who formerly organized the weaving of the best quality carpets fled to India and Nepal during this period, dealing the industry a further blow.

When Tibetan rug weaving began to revive in the 1970s it was not in Tibet, but rather in Nepal and India that the process began. The first western accounts of Tibetan rugs and their designs were written around this time, based on information gleaned from the refugee communities^[3][4]. Chance encounters between western travelers in Kathmandu and former Tibetan weavers led to the establishment of workshops weaving Tibetan rugs and their export to the west. Weaving in the Nepal and India carpet workshops weaving was initially done by Tibetan refugees, later by local non-Tibetan workers who replaced the original Tibetan weavers. The Nepalese weavers in particular quickly broadened the art of the Tibetan carpet from the small traditional rugs with classical designs to large area rugs suitable for use in western living rooms. This began a carpet industry that is important to the Nepalese economy even to this day, even though its reputation was eventually tarnished by child labor scandals during the 1990s.

During the 1980s and 1990s several workshops were also re-established in Lhasa and other parts of Tibet, however these remained relatively disconnected from external markets, a situation that has remained to this day. Today, most carpets woven in Lhasa factories are (with a few exceptions) destined for the tourist market or for use as gifts to visiting Chinese delegations and government departments. Quality is variable, with inexpensive imported wool and cheap dyes marring the quality of much of the output. There have been several attempts to make a better quality carpet capable of meeting the standards of the international market in the last decade and there have been some notable successes, however a gap still exists between Tibet-made product and the “Tibetan style” carpets made by successful businesses outside of Tibet proper.

[edit] Design

Tibetan khaden (small sitting rugs) with designs typical of 19th century weavings

Tibetan carpets from the 19th century (and occasionally earlier, though few unequivocally ancient carpets survive) are relatively restrained in terms of design and coloring, carpet makers at that time being restricted to a narrow range of natural dyes including madder (red), indigo (blue), Tibetan rhubarb (yellow) and Tibetan walnut (browns and greys), with a few other local plants producing yellow and greenish colors. Motifs consisted of two classes: the first type being simple geometric motifs such as the checkerboard and gau (amulet) design that probably formed part of an ancient Tibetan design repertoire, mingled with medallion designs and other motifs derived from Chinese decorative traditions.

Tibetan khaden with designs from the early part of the 20th century showing the greater elaboration and wider color range from this period

From the early 1900s a wider range of synthetic colors became available to Tibetan weavers, and this seems to have stimulated the production of new and more complex designs, also based loosely on traditional Chinese motifs. The period of 1900-1950 saw the production of many colorful new designs featuring dragons, phoenix, floral motifs, clouds and so on. Though the main influence was Chinese, western textile designs were also copied occasionally. These designs still form the core of the Tibetan weaver’s repertoire today.

[edit] Tiger rugs

A Tibetan tiger rug (modern) with and abstract pelt design. Rugs like this were used as meditation seats, as "substitutes" for real tiger skins

The interest of western collectors of Tibetan rugs was particularly piqued by tiger rugs, in part because they are attractive in their own right and in part because of their associations with Tantric meditation. Many Tibetan tiger rugs seem to have been made as gifts for lamas in the monasteries^[5][6].

There are several kinds of Tibetan tiger rug designs. Some consist of "realistic" renderings of tiger pelts, while closely related rugs show more abstracted versions of tiger stripes. Another type of tiger rug shows a "whole pelt", complete with legs and grinning face.

In a religious context, tiger rugs are related to the tiger skin loin cloths seen in painted images of fierce (wrathful) Tibetan Buddhist gods. The tiger skin is believed to provide protection to a person engaged in meditation. Female wrathful gods sport snow leopard spot loin cloths, and old Tibetan rugs are occasionally found with leopard spots too.

Tiger design rugs are found in several other carpet cultures, including Khotan rugs to the north, however it is amongst Tibetan weavers that these designs achieve their highest development. The designs are lively and amongst the most original of all traditional Tibetan motifs.

[edit] Wangden rugs

A Tibetan Wangden sitting rug from the late 19th or early part of the 20th century. The red coloring and red fringe indicate that this rug was used in a monastic setting, probably by a senior lama since junior monks rarely owned such pieces

This is a special type of Tibetan rug, with a looser weave, a lower knot count and a thicker pile than a typical Tibetan carpet. Many Wangden rugs also sport a thick shaggy fringe. Today these rugs are woven only in the Wangden valley, in the region south of Shigatse, though their manufacture may have been more widespread at one time.

This type of rug was originally made for monastic use as a sitting carpet. Some monasteries still have long Wangden runners on the bench seats used by monks during ceremonies, though these are increasingly rare these days. New rugs are still being woven, though mainly for domestic use and for the visitor market in Lhasa. Examples can be seen at the Dropenling Handicrafts Center in Lhasa, as well as at some other stores in the town.

[edit] Present Day Production in Tibet

The visitor to Lhasa today is overwhelmed by rug stores catering both to local Tibetans and foreign and Chinese tourists. The picture is chaotic, with many rugs being offered for sale that are not from Tibet, many indeed that are not even Tibetan in style. Dark red turkomen imitations from factories in Qinghai are sold alongside Chinese rugs and even silk carpets with Middle-eastern designs. Amongst local Tibetans, imitations of traditional Tibetan designs made in machine-woven polyester are popular and cheap alternatives to genuine hand-made carpets.

Searching out a genuine hand-made Tibetan carpet is thus a demanding task. It is not made any easier by the practice of offering imported, even machine-made carpets alongside weaving “demonstrations”. So the would-be buyer in search of the genuine item must look closely at what is being offered to see if it matches what is actually being woven on the loom.

Tibetan carpet factories in Lhasa today fall into two categories. The first type is the government-sponsored workshop. These establishments concentrate mainly on the tourist and “official delegation gift” market. The weaving is competent, but wool and dye quality fall some way short of ideal. Genuine Tibetan wool has a long staple length and a high lanolin content and has a characteristic smell. It makes a strong and durable carpet. Imported wools with a short staple are less strong and make a carpet that is more likely to shed fluff and become matted after cleaning. These wools are however much cheaper than the Tibetan variety. Designs at the government-sponsored workshops are mostly variations on traditional designs, plus the ever-popular “Potala” rug, featuring a picture of the Potala palace and intended to be hung on the wall.

The second category of carpet workshop is that founded by foreigners or returning Tibetan exiles. Lacking government support and a ready-made market, these factories have had a somewhat tougher time. Nevertheless the best ones have re-established the use of good Tibetan wool and dyes of good quality (both natural and synthetic), and some have succeeded in exporting their carpets beyond Lhasa. As a sustainable commercial enterprise however, the weaving of high quality carpets in Tibet still lags a long way behind Nepal and India.

[edit] The Future

Carpet manufacture in Tibet has strong potential and many social and economic benefits. As an economic activity, it provides valuable cash income for rural communities who weave in the winter months. It also makes sense for native Tibetans to weave with the best Tibetan wool, adding value to it rather than selling it to overseas weaving concerns. Building the industry into a strong and viable concern rivaling Indian and Nepalese production will require more attention to traditional quality, coupled with a greater awareness of the needs of overseas markets. Examples include the re-introduction of high quality local wool and natural dyes. Several projects are underway that address these questions, with support from overseas investors and NGOs.

[edit] References