Nikkei Asia: Uzbekistan is the third-largest producer after China and India

The Japanese electronic publication "Nikkei Asia" published an article on the carpet weaving traditions of Uzbekistan.

It notes that Khiva was once an influential trading city on the Silk Road, connecting East and West for several centuries.

“When I stepped into the workshop behind the doorway -- the entrance to a repurposed madrassa -- I saw a few women at their weaving looms, their fingers flying with a confidence born from long experience. I stood watching for a while, mesmerized by the unexpected musical twang the looms emitted in tune with the operators' weaving and knotting.,” - writes the author of the publication.

It is reported that in 2001, with funding from UNESCO and the Swedish development organization "Operation Mercy", the Khiva silk carpet workshop was opened.

“Nearly 700 kilometers away in Samarkand, another ancient Uzbek town, a foreigner from a different country was responsible for setting up another authentic carpet workshop. At the Samarkand Silk Carpets Factory, the Badghisi family, of Turkmen origin, has been producing Uzbek carpets since 1992 -- although the family's history in the trade spans 200 years, first in Turkmenistan and then in Afghanistan,” the author continues.

He quotes the words of Elmira Gul, an expert on Uzbek textiles and carpets: “Carpets are like cultural texts. Just looking at carpets gives us information about who made [the carpets], how they [were] made, what they believed in, what was their religion, and so many important things about their life,” of things".

It is emphasized that Uzbekistan is the third largest silk producer in the world after China and India. Traditional carpets are woven using local silk and organic dyes made from natural ingredients - pomegranate peel for gold and yellow, walnut bark for brown, indigo leaves for blue, madder root for red, etc.