Rediscovering the techniques of their grandmothers, which have remained unchanged for hundreds of years, a small farming village in northern Tajikistan has created a business in which women are the protagonists. They hand-make silky carpets that are among the most expensive and valuable in the world.
Dushanbe (/Agencies) – In the small, picturesque village of Khazorčašma in northern Tajikistan, the inhabitants are mainly engaged in animal husbandry and agricultural work. One of them, Primkul Satorkulov, has been a dekhkanin, a rice farmer, for most of his life, but a few years ago he decided to devote himself to another activity, opening a workshop where local women and girls create the finest and most expensive carpets in the world.
It all started in November 2022, with the visit of President Emomali Rakhmon, who opened a textile factory for the manual production of silk fibre carpets. Satorkulov made himself available, involving his daughter Subkhija, one of his six daughters, who was particularly sensitive to women’s work in the conditions of a very peripheral village. The idea of opening her own business had come to Primkul after a trip to Uzbekistan, where she had seen local women making world-famous oriental silk carpets.
As he told Asia-Plus, “I come from a family of weavers, my grandmothers were very skilled craftswomen and made carpets at home, not from silk but from wool, and now I realise that they knew how to use very traditional techniques, unchanged for hundreds of years, which have been preserved especially in Uzbekistan.” Inspired by the splendid achievements of the Uzbek women and by his childhood memories, Satorkulov decided to take a chance in his home country, supported by his brothers and sisters, and also by the offer of a significant state subsidy for such ventures. As a simple farmer, he had no experience in running such businesses, but he learned as he went. His family is originally from Uzbekistan, so it was not difficult for him to find the right contacts.
She found the necessary equipment in the neighbouring country, and some Uzbek partners offered to help her get the business off the ground: “We invited some experienced women from Uzbekistan, who taught us the secrets of carpet weaving. Some learned quickly, others needed more time… Many of our women have the gift of weaving in their blood, it comes from our grandmothers and great-grandmothers,” says Primkul. This type of activity in these parts is exclusively in the hands of women, and it was not long before around 30 women from the village and the surrounding area gathered in the workshop in Khazorčašma.
In the summer, girls who are free from school also come to work after taking a free course in carpet weaving, earning a good salary to cover their families’ expenses. In the summer, the older women return to the fields and have less time for fine work, so the summer workshop becomes a “kingdom of maidens”, controlled by Primkul’s older sisters, who take on the role of parents. The entrepreneur boasts of them, describing them as “first-class specialists”; one of them, Kibrija, has already won two competitions and has taught the trade to many other young girls, says her brother proudly, noting that “the younger they are, the sooner they learn, as they have no family commitments.”
The carpets are made using paper patterns prepared by the designer, and even with the complexity of the designs, it is almost impossible to make mistakes, especially since two or three people work on each piece together. Hand-woven silk carpets are considered the most expensive in the world, with a medium-sized one costing about 40 thousand dollars and taking 2-3 years to make. The colour range is very diverse, with thousands of shades and very naturalistic representations and decorations. Trade mainly goes through Turkey, after a washing and drying phase that takes place in Uzbekistan using special technologies that make the carpets especially delicate. In this case, a real “silk road” takes place in the Turanian region of Central Asia.
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