For Area Rugs Collectors / Aficionados

The Tibetan Rug Market
Article discusses the history and progress made in the Tibetan rug industry, although it states that the public still is mixed in feeling towards the industry. 'Tibetan Rugs - A Tribal Tradition' was met with derision and incredulity by the traditional Tibetophile crowd at the time of its publication. The market and collector focus had revolved around pictorial designs, and those with Buddhist elements. Geometrics and simple patterns were scorned in spite of Philip Denwood's 1974 publication that casually mentioned that these were in fact the oldest rugs extant from the plateau region. Where is the market today? Most runners to Tibet go to Beijing to look for rugs and to other locales in China. Tibet itself has been mined and the availability of good, old Tibetan rugs is very, very limited. The adventure, the excitement of going to Lhasa to look for rugs is over. The time is past when Tibetan rugs will come onto the market, fresh from the plateau region itself.

Articles on Chinese and Tibetan Rugs
Here are some marvelous articles on Chinese and Tibetan rugs on the website of Thomas Cole, a private dealer specializing in tribal weavings and textiles from Central Asia. He wrote the articles titled Chinese Carpets- Art from the Steppes; A Saddle Rug from the Roof of the World, Tibetan Rugs - A Tribal Tradition, In the Plateau Style (i.e., rugs from the Tibetan Plateau), and Tibetan Rugs - A Cultural Crossroads. Articles by other authors are Images of Lost Civilization - The Ancient Rock Art of Upper Tibet by John Bellezza, Rugs of East Turkestan - Khotan, Yarkand or Kashgar by George O'Bannon, and Speculation on the Earliest Surviving Chinese Rugs by Dr. Murray Eiland, Jr.

Turkmen Trappings
This provides a history and overview of Turkmen weavings. Around 1875, the Czarist Russian government finally succeeded in conquering the various groups, known collectively as the Turkmen confederation, who fiercely resisted all efforts to remove them from the area of southwest Russia. The war had lasted for several decades and the Turkmen, like the native Indians of the American southwest, were able to remain victorious against superior military technology and numbers. When the Russian government allocated tremendously increased resources and manpower (like the government of the United States did against the American Indians) they succeeded. Territorial imperatives were satisfied - at the expense of the total destruction the Turkmen (and as was the case in America, the American Indian) lifestyle, traditions and culture. More information includes photos of Turkmen rugs.

TURKHALI.org
This is a Turkish carpets and rugs portal site that includes a discussion forum and a magazine on Turkish carpets published monthly called Alive. The site also includes a searchable database of more than 700 Turkish rug firms,

Armenian Rugs Society
The Armenian Rugs Society is a non-profit organization founded in Washington D.C., in 1980, dedicated to the identification, preservation and promotion of knowledge of Armenian rugs. The Society holds symposiums and exhibitions in major cities such as New York, Philadelphia, Boston, San Francisco, Montreal, London and Geneva. The Society also maintains a data bank of hand-knotted Oriental rugs, carpets, kilims, bags and trappings bearing inscriptions woven in the Armenian alphabet. Anyone with a hand-woven rug with Armenian inscriptions is encouraged to contribute their photos to the data bank. The website have information about exhibitions, news, information on dating Armenian rugs, and the database mentioned above of rugs with Armenian inscriptions.