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Tibetan )2gs and Te6tiles

Daniel Miller &arpet is Tibetan horse blanket, 19B0s
Tibetan nomads, known as drokpa, meaning ‘people of the high pastures’ continue to fascinate us. Moving across the
grasslands with their animals, their home a tent, nomads evoke freedom. Their world cherishes mobility and the
liberty to roam in search of grass and water. The animals the nomads raise – sheep, goats and yaks – provide the
wool and fiber that are the elemental raw materials used for making Tibetan carpets and textiles.

Although Tibetan nomads do not make knotted pile carpets they use them in their tents for sleeping on and as
blankets and saddle carpets for their horses and yaks. Nomads do weave sheep wool and yak hair into blankets,
bags, tent material and make ropes, sling shots and other items for their daily use.
 The grazing lands of Tibet are one of the
world’s great grassland ecosystems. This is
the heart of Asia. The highest elevation
grazing lands in the world are found in the
Tibetan pastoral area. Most of the area is
above 4,000 m and some nomads maintain
permanent camps at elevations as high as
5,000 m. Snowstorms are common even in
the summer. Growing seasons are short and
cold. As such, the area that Tibetan nomads
call home is one of the world’s most extreme
environments.

Despite the harsh conditions, the

Tibetan plateau provides nutritious
grazing for the nomads’ flocks of
sheep and goats and herds of yaks.
These grazing lands have supported
nomads and their livestock for
thousands of years.

&arpet from the Thomas Fild &ollection

For the nomads, sheep provide wool, meat, hides, milk
and dung for fuel. Sheep meat is the preferred meat
among Tibetans. The wool from the highland Tibetan
sheep ranks among the best carpet wools in the world.
Tibetan wool is highly prized for its great elasticity, deep
luster, and outstanding tensile strength. The fibers of
Tibetan sheep wool have an exceptionally smooth
surface which reflects light, making them more lustrous
than wool from other breeds of sheep. These factors
help give Tibetan carpets their unique characteristics: the
subtle, shaded abrash; supple resiliency; and a potentially
radiant patina.
Yaks not only provide milk and
meat, but valuable fiber. The
long hair of the yak is used for
making nomads’ tents, bags,
blankets and ropes. The fine,
inner wool of the yak is used for
making clothing. Without the
yak, it is doubtful if Tibetans
could live as well as they do.

Women weaving yak hair that will be used for making a tent.

Background photo is detail of a Tibetan yak-hair tent.

 Nomads are constantly exposed to the
elements of nature – rain, snowstorms and
drought; they take these events for granted
and face them with remarkable equanimity.
Values that humankind admires – courge,
integrity, generosity – are principles instinctive
to nomads. They also have an intimate
knowledge of their environment and an
amazing ability to handle animals – a skill rare
among most people today.

With their homes rolled up in bundles

and lashed to the back of yaks as they
move across the grasslands, Tibetan
nomads offer a rare perspective on life.
Their world operates on a rhythm
completely different from the one to
which we are accustomed. Nomads’
lives are finely tuned to the growth of
grass, the births of animals and the
seasonal movement of their herds.
Among Tibetans, working with wool to create functional
blankets, bags, tents, rugs and horse and yak
accouterments is an ancient craft. Since people first
started raising yaks and sheep on the Tibetan Plateau,
perhaps 4,000 years ago, their very existence has
depended on spinning and weaving skills. It is not known
when the making of knotted carpets began in Tibet, but it
may be as old as Buddhism is in the land.
Beginning in the 7th Century, when the expanding Tibetan
Empire conquered many of the Silk Road oasis city-states,
such as Khotan where carpets were known to be made
then, Tibetans were exposed to various Central Asian
weaving traditions. It is highly probable that Tibetan
knotted carpet making arose from rugs made along the
Silk Road.

Regardless of how or where Tibetans first learned

the technique of making knotted, pile carpets,
weaving techniques and designs would have moved
along the Silk Road and the frontiers of the Tibetan
Empire, linking cultures and weavers and enriching
Tibetan civilization. Over time, designs and trends
were absorbed by Tibetan weavers and
incorporated into the formation of their own
unique aesthetic carpet styles. Tibetans began to
create carpets invigorated with dramatic colors and
patterns of good fortune; carpets thought to be
auspicious by the people who wove them.

Carpet photo (left) shows one side of a saddle carpet.

Nomads from Dolpo, Nepal ca. 1978. Background photo is Dolpo blanket woven on a backstrap loom.
Nomad from Dolpo, Nepal spinning yak hair. Background photo is blanket made from yak hair.
Details of slings shots made by nomads.
Tibetan nomad couple outside their tent. Background is detail of Tibetan yak hair blanket
Tibetan nomad on horseback with traditional saddle bag. Background is detail of saddle bag.
Tibetan nomad women wearing the traditional multi-colored apron. Background is detail of apron.
Carpet making in Tibet was a folk art since it was not accorded the seriousness of design of such
religious arts as painting and sculpture. Tibetan carpets did, however, have a purpose and a
function and there was a remarkable design tradition. It was a tradition that was incredibly vast and
of immense creativity.

Carpets were made for a variety of everyday and ceremonial purposes. There were carpets to
sleep on, long runners for rows of monks to sit on while saying prayers in monasteries, carpets to
hang as door curtains, sitting rugs, meditation carpets, saddle carpets and horse blankets. Narrow
strips of woven pile were even used for bell straps on horses and yaks. Tibetan carpet making may
turn out to have been one of the most prolific indigenous design traditions in the world.
The Snow Lion is a magical animal of Tibet. Snow lions
range over the mountains of the Land of Snows, leaping
from mountaintop to mountaintop without touching the
ground; a personification of the primordial playfulness of
joy and bliss. In Tibetan legend, the snow lion
represents boundless energy and fearlessness, based on
purity of spirit, perfect wisdom and compassion. With a
white body and turquoise mane and tail, the roar of the
snow lion embodies the sound of emptiness, courage and
truth. Because of this, the snow lion is often a synonym
for the Buddha’s teachings, as it implies freedom from
worldly karma and the challenging call to awakening the
mind. Snow lions are also found as a design element on
Tibetan carpets. They are an indigenous design aspect
that is totally Tibetan. The snow lion motif is found in
no other culture and presents a unique outlook in the
Oriental carpet world.

Since they are symbolically sacred, the use of

snow lions on Tibetan carpets helps create an
auspicious environment, a field of good fortune,
promoting success and wealth. As the late Ted
Worcester so eloquently noted, “In the Tibetan
view, they are like auspicious companions, helping
to light up the day and night with positive energy.
The designs are transcendently playful, a pleasing
vision of the propitious. They are auspicious
carpets. Snow lion designs on carpets are often
very whimsical, “They are imaginative, animated,
colorful, playful and alive with individual
character. They show an imagination that was at
the outer limits of human consciousness.”
!ll r2gs, te6tiles and photos from the Daniel Miller &ollection
e6cept where noted