� THE ART OF CARPET
Antique Carpets
ORNAMENTATION AND ITS MEANINGS IN THE KAZAKH TRADITION
“ Beauty is the garment of truth ”
N . K . Roerich
The content and the entire ethnic appearance of Kazakh folk art is full of ornamental component in all its richness and variety of compositional forms , colour , semantic and symbolic meaning .
Ornament , having concentrated in itself the meaning and power of certain concepts , reflects knowledge which does not have verbal and written forms . It retained memory of the time when people perceived themselves in unity with nature , when Cosmos naturally entered the life of nomads . Legends and stories told about heroes , whose images symbolized the constellations and they laid the origins to many generations . Man tried to create around himself a semblance of the macroverse , transferring its harmonious system to his home .
Thinking about the meaning of life , people believed in the supreme leadership which accompanied humans from the beginning of time . Wise men gave their pupils the knowledge received from a higher source in symbols , which gradually passed into folk art and lost their original meaning . However , people felt their secret importance and decorated their life with these signs . Symbols , in turn , were made to remind of important spiritual truths . They created a line of continuity from the most ancient knowledge to subsequent generations , preserving their protective function .
Ak Baskur , 1950s , Kyzyl-Orda Region 45x1330
@ danaerik _ fables _ qazaqcarpets
Ornament is a traditional and widespread symbol . One can read not only cosmogonic motifs , the world of flora and fauna , but also natural elements in it . For example , the Earth was depicted in the form of a square or a rhombus ( sharshi ), water as a wavy line , fire as a body of flame . Many rituals and customs were associated with the veneration and deification of all natural forces . But nomads always attached special importance to the elements of fire . We find its symbol on many woven and embroidered items .
There are several methods and ways to study ornament . There is a wide range of publications on this topic . It attracts various specialists , including those who study , relying on intuition and generated images . Their conclusions are always very interesting . Dana Eric , a famous collector of Kazakh carpets , belongs to such group . She can comprehend the sacred component of the Kazakh ornament based on linguistics , folklore , visual image . She knows how to see plots of ancient beliefs and myths of different cultures , different peoples and epochs in traditional ornaments . For example , it is the image of a dragon , which is a symbol of China and is characteristic of Azerbaijani carpets . It is a snake , which refers us to the mythology of Hinduism , Buddhism , to the cult of the man-snake , to the great Nagas of India or stylized images of scorpions and frogs . Earlier , researchers of the Kazakh ornament did not pay attention to the images . It is possible to attribute Dana ’ s research to fantasies , but let ’ s not be so critical because we know that ethnic groups with their culture and traditions passed through the territory of today ’ s Kazakhstan for centuries and the assimilation was inevitable . Folk art of any ethnic group is a synthesis of echoes of all previous epochs and cultures on the Eurasian continent . The great migration of peoples , so remarkably reflected in the three-volume edition The History of Central Asia by the outstanding orientalist and founder of nomadism Yuri Nikolaevich Roerich , confirms this idea .
Dana Eric ’ s thoughts are interesting : “ When I look at the ornament of Kazakh carpets , my mind turns to the mythology of different cultures , languages . For example , Kazakh carpet beskeste ’ s ornament is typical for Turkmen carpets of the Yomud tribe . Similar carpets were woven by the Kazakhs living in Uzbekistan , and by the keres of Mongolia . From Turkish , “ kerevit ” means “ crayfish ”. And I realise that all these basic ornaments are similar to images of
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