Whether he lived in cave or in castle, man has always endeavoured to decorate his dwellings to create a pleasant environment and make his habitat comfortable. Animal skins and leaves of grass were his first items of decor and comfort.
When man's intellectual level developed further and he learnt to weave, he made mats from palm leaves to use them as floor covering. These primitive steps led man to the modern art of carpet weaving.
No one exactly knows as to when proper carpet-making began. The earliest woven carpet is believed to be 7000 years old. It is now established that the first-ever carpet was made in the Asian part of the world.
Areas in the present-day Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, China, India, Nepal and some Central Asian States have always been and still are the principal places of carpet-making. Hand-knotted carpets are thus gifts from the peoples of Asia to the nations in the rest of the world.
The basic (natural) raw material for carpet manufacturing is wool. Around 200 sheep breeds in the world are the source of this material. As far as the quality is concerned, wool from different sheep breeds varies immensely.
Due to its superior strength, flexibility, elasticity, durability, waviness, lustre and natural beauty, the wool of Asian sheep is most ideal for weaving carpets. Another important attribute of this wool is that it is superbly colour absorbent. Give it a rainbow of colours, it will catch them perfectly. Moreover, colour will never' run' or 'bleed'.
Due to abundant indigenous raw material and enormous skilfulness of the inhabitants, the tradition of carpet-making is deeply rooted in the soil of the Indus Valley. History shows that throughout ages this valley has been the cradle of arts and crafts.
Through the course of centuries, the valley has given birth to galaxies of great weavers, whose master-pieces have triumphantly entered into a variety of homes ranging from as simple as nomads' tents to as grand as palaces of tribal chieftains, nobles, princes, regents, kings, queens and emperors.
Woven beauties like rugs, lois, shawls and ajraks were widely used by the people of Mohen-jo-Daro, as the excavations at that site reveal. It is quite possible that the art of weaving developed in the Mohen-jo-Daro region spread to areas as far as Turkistan and southern Siberia, where a rug made around 425 B.C. called 'Pazyryk' has been discovered from a tomb.
The process of carpet-making is quite complex, though no electricity, no gas is required for creating the timeless pieces of art. Wool itself passes through several stages before being taken to carpet-weaving looms. Firstly, wool is washed, so that dust particles get removed. Then, scouring of wool starts. At this stage, its natural texture and real feel comes out. It is spun into yarn then.
After that the dyeing process begins. Yarn-dyeing is an art in itself. Our part of the world has old traditions of yarn-dyeing too. Colours and dyes are obtained from vegetables, plants and other natural materials. Madder and indigo are classic examples of important natural dyes.
Carpets and rugs have two main parts, the pile (the top surface) and backing (the under surface). By technical definition, a carpet is a decorative woven textile, which is produced by knotting thick coloured threads (yarns) on the warp, compressed by weft.
Weft yarns are horizontal and warp yarns are vertical. Several distinct types of knot are used to produce carpets. The most important of these types are the Turkish knot and Persian knot. The Turkish knot is wrapped around two warps and the Persian knot around a single warp.
The principles and elements of design viz balance, rhythm, scale, proportion, dominance, symmetry, contrast, repetition are kept in mind while making a woolen master-piece.
The ideal of carpet design is to integrate utility, craftsmanship and beauty into a harmonious whole. The quality of carpet is determined by intricacy and beauty of the design and density and skill of knotting. The design is called the soul of a carpet, which makes the colours sing and the wool whisper. The over-all design of carpets is usually divided between central area called the field and borders.
The designs of finer carpets are intricate yet very balanced, the motifs are mostly geometric, stylised and naturalistic. They are usually symbolic naturalised plant forms such as flowers and fruits trees symbolised eternal life and rebirth.
The art of knotting carpets reached its peak in Asia, mainly in Persia and Indus valley, in the 15th and 16th centuries. The interiors of the majority of Asian homes stood decorated and beautified with these object of elegance. At that point of time, Europe was "preparing for Renaissance." Sir Thomas Moore (1478-1535), a member of Parliament in England and the author of "Utopia" (a book, which is claimed to mark a new turning point in the path of European thought) describes the condition of the homes in London and England as "dark, inconvenient and miserable".
In such living conditions, when Oriental carpets of high artistic quality and value reached Europe through travellers, the Westerners were literally dazzled by the beauty of these Eastern wonders. They were so much impressed by these sublime beauties that instead of using them as floor coverings, they hanged them on walls. They could not imagine that such items could also be placed on floors and be walked upon.
Europeans began importing Oriental carpets in somewhat bigger quantities as late as the 18th century. By that time, the rich traditions of weaving had scaled newer heights here. The art had been so much popular that it became part and parcel of every day life in Sindh, the main centre of Indus Valley civilisations.
Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai (1689-1752), the most renowned and most revered poet of the Sindhi language, repeatedly refers to the art of weaving to guide his readers to learn from weavers the tying of knots of immortal love. He says: Halo, Halaun Koreeain, gandhen janee jo kum.
(Let us go to the Kories- the weavers, whose job it is to tie knots).
Again he says: Gandheen saaro deenhun, chenan taan moor na sikhia.
(They - the weavers - keep tying knots for the whole day. They have never learnt untying of knots).
The Europeans found the imported Oriental carpets very expensive. And due to lack of skilful local talent, they could not viably and sustainably manufacture hand-knotted carpets themselves either. For making cheaper versions, they thought of mass production. With this object in mind, a power loom was developed in England in 1780. And, about 1800, jacquard mechanism was evolved in France. A tufted carpet-manufacturing machine was introduced by the middle of the last century. The mass production of carpers did begin. But the West failed to realise the fact that a hundred thousand machines cannot produce that beauty and sublimity which could be created by 10 human fingers. Thus the demand for Oriental hand-made carpets continued to exist and expand in the occident.
Global exports of hand-knotted carpets and other textile floor coverings stood at $1.68 billion in 2004. Pakistan occupies 3rd position among hand-knotted carpet-exporting countries in the world. Our share in global export of this item was 14% in that year.
The annual growth in export value of hand-knotted carpets on global level increased by 9% between 2003 and 2004. During the same period Pakistan achieved a growth of 19%.
PAKISTAN'S EXPORT PERFORMANCE IN HAND-KNOTTED CARPERS FOR THE LAST FIVE YEARS PERIOD IS GIVEN BELOW:
TABLE-1
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Value: Million $
2004-2005 2003-2004 2002-2003 2001-2002 2000-2001
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277.8 231.4 220.9 249.5 288.8
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The above table reveals that the export of hand-knotted carpets from Pakistan peaked at $288 million in 2000-2001.
Exports decreased in 2001-2002 to a level of $249.5 million. During the year that followed exports went further down to $220.9 million. The country, however, slightly strengthened its position in the international market in 2003-2004 and exports reached $231.4 million. In 2004-2005, there was further improvement in carpet exports performance, when we exported this item worth $277.8 million.
Table-II
PAKISTAN'S LEADING FIVE CARPET IMPORTERS:
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Value: Million $
2004-05 2003-04 2002-03 2001-02 2000-01
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USA 109.78 88.89 89.74 95.64 112.16
Germany 29.97 29.97 22.68 31.23 43.48
Italy 27.6 20.19 19.97 14.00 14.5
France 15.00 12.00 9.93 12.58 13.61
UK 13.6 10.77 12.00 15.75 16.00
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Table-II shows that USA is the single largest importer of hand-knotted carpets from Pakistan. The country imported Pakistani carpets worth $89.7 million in 2002-2003. Its imports slightly slided to $88.8 million in 2003-2004. Our imports significantly rose to $109.8 million in 2004-2005. Pakistani carpets second largest buyer, Germany, imported this item equal to $43.79 million in 2000-2001.
Exports to Germany declined to $31.2 million in 2001-2002. There was a further decline in exports to this country in the year 2002-2003, when exports went down to $29.9 million. In 2004-2005 there was no significant change in our exports to Germany. The figure remained static at $29.97 million.
Italy ranks 3rd among our carpets buyers. This country's imports from Pakistan were valued at $14.5 million in 2000-2001.
Exports to Italy remained stagnated at nearly 14.00 million in 2001-2002. In 2002-2003 there was an increasing trend in Italy's imports, when export figures touched $19.97 million. During 2003-2004 exports remained around the same level at $20.2 million. Exports climbed to $27.6 million in 2004-2005.
France is the 4th largest destination of Pakistan's carpet shipments. The French market absorbed Pakistani carpet worth $13.6 million in 2000-2001. In the following year our export to France declined to $12.6 million. Exports further declined to $9.9 million in 2002-2003. However, in 2003-2004 Pakistan's export to France rose to reach a value of $12.00 million. A further increase was witnessed in 2004-2005, when France imported Pakistani carpets worth $15.00 million.
Britain follows France in the list of our carpet importers. The United Kingdom's import of hand-knotted carpets was almost equal to $16.00 million in 2000-2001. The figure slightly went down to $15.75 million in 2001-2002. There was a further fall exports to the UK in 2002-2003, when that country's import from Pakistan was $12.1 million. The decreasing trend continued in 2003-2004. Export remained as low as $10.7 million. In 2004-2005 exports climbed to $13.6 million figures.
Other countries, which import substantial quantity of Pakistani carpets include Spain, Japan, Canada, UAE, South Africa and Kuwait etc.
As shown above, Pakistan's highest carpet exports have been $288.82 in 2000-2001. It is not be difficult to cross this level and go beyond. The following measures may help in improving export performance of this luxurious item:
(i) Sheep is an important source of basic raw material required for carpet-manufacturing. Apart from wool, this useful animal provides milk, meat and skin. To ensure adequate supply of indigenous wool, it is necessary to establish scientific Sheep Farming Centres in areas which are climatically suitable for sheep growth. eg almost all major towns and villages in the sprawling districts of Balochistan, Tharparkar, Umerkot, Nara (Khairpur), Jacobabad in Sindh, Cholistan, Jhang, Bakkhar, Suhawa in the Punjab and similar places in the NWFP.
(ii) Further, Carpet villages may be established in these areas. In these Carpet villages, training may be provided to male and female workers in the field of yarn (hand) spinning, yarn-dyeing, carpet-knotting. Scholarships may be given to those workers during the training period. They should also be fully trained in the art and science of marketing (carpets). Let it not be the fate of the people of these remote, backward and under-developed areas to live and die in perpetual poverty.
(The writer is Director, Export Promotion Bureau, Karachi.)
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