The Spread of Kyrgyz Pile Weaving
Pile weaving has long been known to the Kyrgyz living in the territory of the modern Osh region, and it is widespread in the southern areas, while in the northern regions (the former Jalal-Abad region), it is practiced by Kyrgyz inhabiting areas closer to the Fergana Valley.
In other regions of Kyrgyzstan, no tribal group of Kyrgyz produced pile carpet products. In the Issyk-Kul region, in the Jeti-Oguz district, there are pile carpet products, but the technique of their production has nothing to do with carpet weaving. The pile in these products is formed not during weaving, but is sewn on with a needle using colored wool threads by wrapping around the stems of chia and attaching them to the fabric. The loops are cut with a sharp razor above the stem, which is then removed. This creates rows of pile. This technique has not gained widespread popularity. An interesting fact is the existence of a similar technique among the southwestern Kazakhs (Adaevtsy), noted by V. V. Vostrov.
A. A. Semenov mentions the weaving of carpets by the Kyrgyz-Uzbek tribe "katagan," living along the banks of the Amu Darya and Vakhsh rivers.
Thus, the spread of Kyrgyz pile weaving extends far beyond the borders of Kyrgyzstan. In Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and the People's Republic of China, all Kyrgyz who know pile carpet making belong to the tribal union of ichkilik. In the Osh region, in addition to ichkiliks, pile weaving is also practiced by neighboring tribal groups such as adigine, mungush, basyz, munduz, kutchu, and bagysh.
Collections of Kyrgyz pile products are stored in state museums of our country. The State Museum of Ethnography has collections of ancient carpets from Central Asia, including carpets purchased by S. M. Dudkin from southern Kyrgyzstan, from the Kyrgyz of Eastern Turkestan and Uzbekistan. Pile mats are also represented in collections gathered by the museum in 1941 in southern Kyrgyzstan by B. K. Balakin and E. I. Makhova.
The Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the National Academy of Sciences of the Kyrgyz Republic holds two Kyrgyz carpets that arrived here in 1910 and 1920.
Kyrgyz carpet products are also stored in the Historical Museum. Here, predominantly small pile products are concentrated. The museum does not yet have large carpets made by Kyrgyz artisans. (Editor’s note: made using a combined weaving technique: the pile has only a pattern, while the background is a light, smooth, non-pile fabric 30 cm wide. This technique of carpet weaving is widespread among Kazakhs, Karakalpaks, and Turkmen. Unfortunately, information about this carpet is quite scarce. According to the owner, it was purchased in Southern Kyrgyzstan).
A number of small pile products are kept in the Museum of Fine Arts. The funds of the Museum of Arts and the Museum of History of Uzbekistan contain valuable pile products, mainly made by Kyrgyz living in Uzbekistan and belonging to the groups of kydyrsha and kypchak. Most of these products are dated by V. G. Moshkov to the late 19th century.
The oldest carpet products found among the population of the Osh region were made no more than a hundred years ago.
