TURKMENISTAN AND KYRGYSTAN

The most unique and beautiful carpets in the world are produced by Turkmenistan. These
vary in shape and purpose. Carpet weaving is an ancient art, and each tribe developed its
own distinctive pattern.
The traditional arts include felt manufacture, jewelry making, woodwork, ceramics, and silverwork.
Turkmen carpets have been traditionally woven out of wool, cotton, and silk by women,
using horizontal looms. The method of weaving has been modernized, but the beauty and
quality of the fabrics remain.
Turkmenistan is also the source of keteni, a homespun silk that is used for the beautiful dresses
worn by Turkmen women on special occasions. The embroidery uses different patterns that are as
unique as a family seal.

Large elaborately embroidered wall hangings called Tush Kyiz are traditionally made in Kyrgyzstan
and Kazakhstan, by elder women to commemorate the marriage of a son or daughter.
UZBEKISTAN, KASAKHSTAN, AND TAJIKISTAN
People who inhabited the region of present Uzbekistan are known for making printed cloth.
Printed tablecloths, curtains, bedspreads, shawls, and various coverlets were utilitarian and
served a daily-round ornament as well.
Clothing, utility tools, yurts, and horses’ saddles were always decorated using patterns and
design.
Kazakhstan’s visual arts are relatively young. In ancient times, nomads used to draw on rocks.
Today, these petroglyphs can be found throughout Kazakhstan.
Tajiks have been making fabrics, utensils, musical instruments, carpets, furniture, jewelries, and
many other things for many centuries. Carving is mostly present in architectural monuments,
household structures and objects, musical instruments, and souvenirs.
TURKMENISTAN ABD KYRGYSTAN
The traditional arts include felt manufacture, jewelry making, woodwork, ceramics, and
silverwork. The most unique and beautiful carpets in the world are produced by Turkmenistan.
These vary in shape and purpose. Carpets weaving is an ancient art, and each tribe developed
its own distinctive pattern.
Turkmenistan is also the source of keteni, a homespun silk that is used for beautiful dresses
worn by Turkmen women on special occasions.
Kyrgyz women produce a wide range of textiles, mostly from the felt of their sheep. Colors and
designs are chosen to symbolize Kyrgyz traditions and rural life. Flowers, plants, animals,
stylized horns, national designs, and emblems of Kyrgyz life are often in these ornate and
colorful embroideries.

Central Asian arts - Literary, performing, and visual arts of a large portion of Asia
embracing the Turkic republics (Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan),
Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Mongolia, Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan and parts of Russia and China. As
used here, the term denotes only those traditions that were not influenced by the religion of
Islam.
The arts that developed across central Asia were fed by those adjoining cultural regions by such
supraregional influences as Islam.
Central Asian Arts
Is visual art created in Central Asia by the largely Turkic peoples of modern Kyrgyzstan,
Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and
parts of modern Mongolia, China and Russia. The arts
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of recent centuries are mainly influenced by Islamic art, but the varied earlier cultures were
influenced by the art of China, Persia and Greece, as well as the Animal style that developed among
the nomadic peoples of the steppes.
Central Asia is known for making printed cloth which serves as a daily round ornaments. The
traditional arts include felt manufacture, jewelry making, woodwork, ceramics and silverwork.
Colors and designs are chosen to symbolize Kyrgyz traditions and rural life.
The art of decorative carving for local residents is important in Tajikistan. Carvings decorate the
monuments and architecture, household objects, musical instruments, utensils, frames,
souvenirs and so forth.
The technique involved in non-background carving could be achieved only by professional
carvers and was considered to be a highly skilled urban craft. The bases of carved
ornamentation, as manifested in this particular technique, are islimi – a pliant, elastic and
dynamic intertwining of shoots covered with buds, flowers and leaves; and pargori – a
meticulous and static geometric design achieved using a pair of compasses and a ruler.
Architectural styles of the numerous societies have occupied Central Asia throughout history.
These styles include Timurid architecture of the 14th and 15th centuries, Islamic-influenced
Persian architecture and 20th century Soviet Modernism. Timurid architecture employed some
Seljuk traditions, and featured grand scale buildings constructed from fired bricks. The exteriors
of buildings were decorated with highly detailed blue and turquoise linear and geometric
patterning of glazed tiles, inspired by Iranian Banna’i technique. In consistency with Islamic
Architecture, Timurid Architecture also often featured domes and minarets.
Pottery is characterized by a colour scheme that employs cold dark blue, white and light blue. This
similarity of colour scheme is due to common techniques used in application: the use of alkaline, or
ishkor, glazes that lend a special dark- and light-blue tinge to the painting they cover. The range of wares
includes large and medium-sized chalices, large dishes, small jugs, vessels of various shapes for dairy
products, mugs, wash-bowls and so on.

CENTRAL ASIA
UZBEKISTAN
• • People who inhabited the region of present Uzbekistan are known for making
printed cloth. Printed tablecloths, curtains, bed-spreads, shawls and various coverlets were
utilitarian and served as a daily-round ornament as well.
• • Uzbekistan ceramics hold a prominent place among the numerous forms of popular
applied art.

KAZAKHSTAN
• • Applied arts in ancient Kazakhstan were part of life’s daily routine. Clothing, utility
tools, yurts, and horses’ saddles were always decorated using nomadic patterns and
design.
• • Kazakhstan’s visual arts are relatively young. In ancient times, nomads used to
draw on rocks and, today, these petroglyphs can be found throughout Kazakhstan.
• • Fine art in Kazakhstan varies in style, direction, and genre. The most captivating
work by Kazakhstan artists in different periods can be seen in museums across the country.
TAJIKISTAN
• • Tajiks have been making fabrics, utensils, musical instruments, carpets, furniture,
jewelry, and many other things for many centuries.

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• • The art of decorative carving is very important for local residents. Carving is mostly
present in architectural monuments, household structures and objects, musical instruments,
and souvenirs. When Islam came, Tajik’s carving gradually changed to Arabian inscriptions
using images of people and animals while some carvers prefer “vegetative,” geometrical
patterns. In architecture, ornaments in the form of lotus, tulips, and other flowers are more
common.

TURKMENISTAN
• • The most unique and beautiful carpets in the world are produced by Turkmenistan.
These vary in shape and purpose. Carpet weaving is an ancient art, and each tribe
developed its own distinctive pattern.
• • The traditional arts include felt manufacture, jewelry making, woodwork, ceramics,
and silverwork.
• • Turkmen carpets have been traditionally woven out of wool, cotton, and silk by
women, using horizontal looms. The method of weaving has been modernized, but the
beauty and quality of the fabrics remain.
• • Turkmenistan is also the source of keteni, a homespun silk that is used for the
beautiful dresses worn by Turkmen women on special occasions. The embroidery uses
different patterns that are as unique as a family seal.

KYRGYSTAN
• • Kyrgyz women produce a wide range of textiles, mostly from the felt of their sheep.
Nowadays ancient patterns are adapted to the tourist and export market, but it is still a living
tradition and that all yurts and most houses contain hand-made carpets or rugs called
shirdaks.

• • Large elaborately embroidered wall hangings called Tush kyiz are traditionally
made in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, by elder women to commemorate the marriage of a
son or daughter. Colors and designs are chosen to symbolize Kyrgyz traditions and rural
life. Flowers, plants, animals, stylized horns, national designs, and emblems of Kyrgyz life
are often found in these ornate and colorful embroideries.

Flat cushions called xxx are usually made in shadow-pairs. These are seen on every chair, padding
the seat.
Central Asia
UZBEKISTAN
Uzbekistan is known for making printed cloth.
KAZAKHSTAN
Kazakhstan’s visual arts are relatively young. In ancient times, nomads used to draw on
rocks and, today, these petroglyphs can be found throughout Kazakhstan.
TAJIKISTAN
Tajiks have been making fabrics, utensils, musical instruments, carpets, furniture, jewelry,
and many other things for many centuries.
The art of decorative carving is very important for local residents.
When Islam came, Tajik’s carving gradually changed to Arabian inscriptions using images
of people and animals while some carvers prefer “vegetative,” geometrical patterns.
TURKMENISTAN
The most unique and beautiful carpets in the world are produced by Turkmenistan. These
vary in shape and purpose. Carpet weaving is an ancient art, and each tribe developed its
own distinctive pattern.
Turkmen carpets have been traditionally woven out of wool, cotton, and silk by women,
using horizontal looms. The method of weaving has been modernized, but the beauty and
quality of the fabrics remain.
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Turkmenistan is also the source of keteni, a homespun silk that is used for the beautiful
dresses worn by Turkmen women on special occasions. The embroidery uses different
patterns that are as unique as a family seal.
KYRGYZSTAN
Large elaborately embroidered wall hangings called Tush kyiz are traditionally made in Kyrgyzstan
and Kazakhstan, by elder women to commemorate the marriage of a son or daughter.