Eastern Turkestan Carpets
A. Felkerzam notes seven types of Eastern Turkestan carpets. Two of them find analogies in Kyrgyz products: these are carpets with a "grid" ornament (a connection of four "S" shapes) and with a tiled arrangement of the pattern.
Carpets with a "grid" ornament are classified by us as the second type. This pattern has become very popular among all southern Kyrgyz, including the Pamiris. Carpets with a tiled arrangement, according to our typology, belong to the fifth type. As for the other five types of Eastern Turkestan carpets mentioned by A. Felkerzam, they are not characteristic of the Kyrgyz. However, many ornamental motifs (meander, tree-like shapes) were likely transferred from here to their carpets.
The arrangement of patterns on small carpet products and on "tegirich" has its own features, each of which is quite distinctive.
Thus, the compositional solution of the carpet bag "chavadan" has the following variants:
1) the entire strip is divided into 3-4 squares, separated by transverse stripes and containing a homogeneous pattern;
2) 3-4 medallions are arranged lengthwise, without transverse partitions;
3) the compositional solution is similar to the composition of carpet type 6, which is called "kunava";
4) the field of the "chavadan" is occupied by cross-shaped frames filled with a pattern in the form of crosses.
The arrangement of the border on the "chavadan" usually has two variants: either only along its narrow sides or on all four sides.
A characteristic feature of carpet bags, as well as carpet sacks, is the mandatory filling of the corners with patterns in the form of triangles or pointed projections. This resembles Eastern Turkestan carpets, where, with a certain composition, all corners are filled with a meander pattern. This technique is also found in ancient Turkmen carpets.
Carpet bags and hanging shelves ("ayak koychu", "kosh jabyk", "bashtyk") also have specific compositions.
In these products, there are always two or three rows of borders, one of which is wider than the others. In products of recent years, the border is often designed in a single row.
In older carpet bags, a triangular flap was additionally woven, thus reproducing a felt bag resembling an envelope. Later, it became customary to weave a fictitious flap. Old bags were characterized by the presence of carpet fabric on both sides. Later, the back part of the bag began to be made from simple home-produced fabric.
In a similar manner to the bag and hanging shelf, such carpet products as "kёpchuk" and "kurjun" were designed.
We cannot remain silent about the carpet curtains for the door of the yurt — "eshik tysh". They are primarily noted by us in groups united under the name "ichkilik". Among the Kyrgyz of the Kesek group in the Laylak district, such curtains, predominantly in red and white colors, had a primitive pattern consisting of hook-shaped curls.
In the Batken district, we recorded a carpet curtain with a white background, decorated with small rosettes with a stepped polygonal pattern and curls; in the center of the polygon are eight-pointed stars or crosses.
The carpet curtain published by M. S. Andreev for the door of the yurt among the Kyrgyz of Pamir repeats the pattern on a chiev mat found in the Frunze district among the Kyrgyz of the jookesek group. The pattern was likely copied from Uzbek silk of artisanal production.
The arrangement of patterns on carpet strips "tegirich" stands out particularly. The most commonly encountered composition is an uninterrupted chain of new and new patterns, following one after another and separated from each other by narrow stripes or a different color of the background. The second variant in the arrangement of patterns is a chain of two or three repeating motifs, the groups of which alternate. The simplest variant of placing ornamental motifs on a carpet strip is expressed in the repetition of the same pattern. One side is decorated with a border (often with a single pattern) usually in brown color and clearly reproduces the "bagdjagai" pattern, typical for the woven patterned strip "kadjary". As for the main patterns on "tegirich", this peculiar "album" of ancient ornamentation represents a sum of those ornamental motifs that the Kyrgyz used in carpet weaving at the end of the last century and the beginning of this one.
The ornament of Kyrgyz carpets is quite diverse and sometimes has complex forms, the origins of which remain poorly studied.
Rhythmicity in the arrangement of ornamental motifs of Kyrgyz carpets