Samarkand Uzbek Julkhirs Primitive Rug

Chest Vendor seated on Uzbek Julkhirs, Julkhyrs primitive rug Samarkand Zaravshan district between 1865 and 1872 from the Turkestan Album.

The high pile of the Julkhirs was favoured by some nineteenth Century merchants of Samarkand, the obvious attraction being a more comfortable rug  for the long hours seated at the market place.

Variations of the motifs woven into this Julkhirs were repeated up to the end of the first quarter of the twentieth century. Some examples which followed were created with wool dyed in extremely bright and garish synthetic dyes, including a dazzling bright yellow, ultra bright deep green representative of a Christmas tree gone wrong, a dark cherry red and super saturated crimson plus an overwhelming bright pink.

Images from The Turkestan Album and those created by Prokudin-Gorskii give us a snapshot of life in Samarkand between 1865 and 1910, backing up Moshkova's ^1. observations in Carpets of the People of Central Asia.

Below are all of the images published so far on this blog of Julkhirs in use in Samarkand during the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth century.

^1. Moshkova, V. G.  Carpets of the People of Central Asia. George O’Bannon,  Arizona Lithographers Tucson, Arizona, 1996. 83

Image Attributions:

Courtesy of the Library of Congress,
LC-DIG-ppmsca-14869, LC-DIG-prokc-21725,
LC-DIG-ppmsca-14711,             
LC-DIG-prokc-21753 - LC-DIG-prok-11753,
LC-DIG-ppmsca-14806

Illus. in: Turkestanskīĭ alʹbom, chastʹ
ėtnograficheskai︠a︡...,
1871-1872, part 2, vol. 2, pl. 144.

Primitive Skins from the Stone Age Part 5 Bearskin Postak

Bearskin Postak

Kirghiz Hunters

Group in costume with dogs, yaks, horse and mountain sheep head, returning from hunt for wounded mountain sheep.

Himalayan brown bears are found in the Afghan Pamirs, usually seen running helter skelter across the jagged mountains and valleys displaying shaggy coats of a reddish-brown or sandy colour. This Postak is in the collection of Karl-Heinz Breuss and was published in 2000 und 1e Nacht¹ It has been suggested that the central skin panel could be the hide of an unlucky bear. The colour certainly matches that of the Himalayan brown bear.

Kirghiz pelt rug Karl-Heinz Breuss probable bearskin central panel

These shaggy fur rugs would normally consist of Karakol sheep skin, Yak skin or Mountain Goat. The Kirghiz were not noted for hunting bears. M. Nazif Shaharani wrote, "Hunting, trapping, and collecting are very marginal activities among the Kirghiz. The Kirghiz, I was told, relied more heavily on hunting for their food in the past than they do now. The Kirghiz never go out solely for the purpose of hunting animals regarded by Islamic doctrine as unfit for human consumptoin-wolf, fox, bear or marmot. They shoot wolves and foxes if they run into them."² The Karl-Heinz Breuss Postak is most certainly one of the rare group of late 19th Century examples. It's plausible that a Himalayan brown bear ended up in the sights of the hunters rifle, perhaps the result of an encounter that neither man nor bear had wished for. The Wakhi and Kirghiz did hunt mountain goats for their hides, the Wakhi were noted for making long skin coats of mountain goat.³ The attached images all shot in the 19th Century indicate that hunting in the Wakhan corridor was common practice. The Marco Polo sheep has been hunted in the area for centuries.

From the Kirghiz legend of Jalyil "Over mountain and valley he hunts the Marco Polo sheep, the one of a kind" ⁴

Inevitable change impacted on the traditional ways of the Kirghiz. This rare group of pieced-skin Postak remain. Bear or no bear, the Karl-Heinz Breuss example is a tangible link to a primitive past that pre-dates the woven carpet.

 Hunters late 19th Century Wakhan Corridor

Hunting 19th Century

1 Gerhard M. Dienes,  Helmut Reinisch 2000 und 1e Nacht. Teppiche und textilen aus Privatsammlungen - Stadt Museum Graz 2001 , no. 161 pg 227

2 Shaharani M. Nazif  The Kirghiz and Wakhi of Afghanistan  Adaptation to Closed Frontiers and War University of Washington Press 2002 108

3 Dor, R. & Neumann, C. Die Kirghisen des Afghanischen Pamir Akademische Druck- u. Verlanganstalt, Graz 1978 37

4 Dor, R. & Neumann, C. Die Kirghisen des Afghanischen Pamir Akademische Druck- u. Verlanganstalt, Graz 1978 99

Image Citations - Hunting party, photographs by David T Hanbury, probably Pamir mountains. DOE Asia: China: Xinjiang (Sinkiang):
National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution Local Notes: Photo Prior to 1898, NM 32640 04535000, NM 32640 04529500, NM 32640 04532900, NM 32640 04532800, NM 32640 04532700, NM 32640 04535500, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution NM 32640 04535600,

Bearskin Rugs of Central Asia

 

Bearskins of Central Asia

You just want to roll in one, so immediate is the thrill ¹

Long piled shaggy bearskins of Central Asia are referenced by many variations of the word Julkhirs. What is a bearskin rug?  Bearskins were woven by Central Asian nomads in Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and Tajikastan - Amu Darya, the Oxus.  Uzbeks, Arabs, Kirghiz and Turkmen Uzbeks were the principal weavers of the shaggy pelt like rugs called Julkhirs. Other similar shaggy bearskins are found in Tibetan weavings – TsukTruk.

Stories abound about the origins of Central Asian Bearskins – the very name stirs the imagination – mountainous rugged terrain, cold windy mountain peaks, wild bears - their skins preserved and made into sleeping rugs – fiction. Some weavers of bearskins were hallucinating whilst weaving, their erratic weavings the result of long periods of hallucinogenic drug intake. ²

Primitive bearskins with their soft thick shaggy wool are a patterned facsimile of shaggy animals and an archaic link to a distant past. Extant examples give us a glimpse into this lost world of nomadic existence.

Julkhirs in Samarkand Uzbek, literally means Bearskin, in other locations called Pati Zulvarak or Julvarak. ³ Khirs in Nurata Uzbek means bear. ⁴ The meaning for the Turkmen Uzbeks of the Nurata Basin, Julkihrs was a saddle blanket of a rich man, jul - saddle blanket khirs - rich man. ⁵

Also interpreted as, skin of bear, djulchir, djul-y-khyr, djul-ykhir,julekhers, julkhyr (joorli-hur), Julhir, julykhir, jul-I-Khyr, julykhyrs,  , julihorc, Culkhir, Joolkhir, Joolkhyr, Joolykhyr, Joolykhyrs, Cunkur, Julkyr, Jul-i-khirs

Call them want you want, if you are lucky enough to own one of these rare shaggy bearskin rugs you won’t care how it’s spelt or pronounced the joy they bring is immense.

Bearskins used to illustrate this post: Collection The Author

1 Cater, M. The Bearskins of Oxiana (Antiques and Art in Queensland 2005) 58

http://www.orientalcarpets.com.au/home/newsletters/essays.html

2 Tanghe, P.  Wouters, H. Van Tongerloo, A. Pollet, L. Boenders, F. Beaulieux, D. Djulchir Tissus de defense et de protection (Kredietbank, Bruxelles, 1995) Illustration 27, 138

3 Moshkova, V. G.  Carpets of the People of Central Asia (George O’Bannon,  Arizona Lithographers Tucson, Arizona, 1996) 331

4 Moshkova, V. G. 333

5 Moshkova, V. G. 121