Ersari Project

      The Ersari Turkmen weaving project was founded in 1988. Through this project we have strived to revive the art of the traditional Ersari Turkmen carpet, as well as to provide support for Ersari Turkmen refugees from Northern Afghanistan living in Pakistan. To this end we have built and operate two schools for Ersari Turkmen children living as refugees in Pakistan. These schools are supported entirely by the Ersari Turkmen Weaving Project, are tuition free and are open to all refugee children. The two schools have a student population of about 700. The student body is about 30 percent girls. We have made a point of encouraging the education of Turkmen girls, something that was largely unknown in Afghanistan and also in Pakistan until inception of this project. The schools provide a basic education, with instruction in Urdu, English, Farsi, mathematics, history and literature. At present our instruction is up to grade eight and will extended to higher classes as the need arises, computer facilities and instruction is planned. As the refugee situation evolves we will adapt our education program to meet the needs of the Ersari Turkmen community, whether in Pakistan or in Afghanistan.

     As the time of this update (April 2004) we are finally moving back to the roots of our project In Afghanistan.  Jora Agha with whom we started the project in 1987 and have worked with ever since, has moved back to his home village of Aqcha in northern Afghanistan. We have begun to shift some of our project weaving back to the Aqcha region as Ersari Turkmen families start returning to their homeland after years of exile in Pakistan due to the conflicts that have wracked their country. Land has been kindly donated to us for the construction of our first school in the Ersari homeland in northern Afghanistan. We plan to begin construction on it this year, and it should have over 300 girl and boy students from Turkmen and other tribes. At the same time we plan to open at least five small adult learning centers in the Aqcha region for older girls and women who missed the opportunity for education during the Taliban period.

    The various Turkmen Tribes are among the quintessential nomads of Central Asia. Although it is not known who first developed the art of weaving a pile carpet, it has been suggested that the Turkmen were among the first to refine this art and bring it to an unsurpassed level of technical, visually expressive, and symbolically transcendent mastery. All this was achieved while maintaining the strictly tribal and generally nomadic character of their existence, something reflected in the purely functional format of the great majority of their weavings.

    The Ersari are one of the larger main groupings of Turkmen Tribes. They traditionally (in recent centuries) lived in the more eastern part of the range of the Turkmen, near to Bokhara and Samarkand. After the Russian revolution most moved south to join their relations in northern Afghanistan. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan saw these refugees once more displaced, as many fled to Pakistan in order to maintain their religion and way of life.

    It is there that this project took root. A brave and industrious people were willing to do whatever was necessary to maintain themselves and their way of life. What they have always known best was weaving of carpets.Due to the pressures of the modern world the art and technique of dyeing wool with vegetable dyes had largely passed out of existence in the last 40 to 80 years. It was the initial aim of our product to rediscover and revive those techniques, and then combine them with traditional Ersari designs that had fallen out of use.Having lived somewhat nearer than most of the Turkmen to the great Central Asian commercial and artistic centers of Bokhara and Samarkand, the Ersari adopted a far greater range of color and design in their weavings than many of the other more remote Turkmen tribes. It has been our intent to attempt to revive this rich tradition of design and color in all the glorious hues of their original vegetally dyed antecedents.

    The principle dye sources we use to achieve this are madder root for red, indigo for blue, and insparak flower or pomegranate husks for yellow. Manipulation and combination of these dye sources allows us to achieve a wide palette of colors. Wool is as important as dyes to the creation of a great rug. To this end we use only hand carded, hand spun wool most consistent with the lustrous, long staple wool found in antique Ersari Turkmen carpets.All of the carpets are washed in soap and water only. While they may shine less initially we feel that the long term benefits to the customer are great. This is the way in which the carpets we are recreating were traditionally finished. The wonderful sheen, which they developed, came after years of use and washing, and we believe that our carpets will achieve the same if given the chance.

    Each carpet contains a small inscription, usually woven into one corner or end giving the name of the weaving family, the place woven and the date, as well as the weaver’s preferred choice of identity, usually "Turkmen Mahajer" – Turkmen refugee. These inscriptions are in Persian characters, however English translations are available. While not something that was so common traditionally, we feel that these inscriptions provide a personal connection between the ultimate recipient of these carpets and the hard work and artistry of the weavers. This project was initially funded through Cultural Survival Inc., a non-profit human rights organization. All proceeds continue to be directed into this project both for its growth and for the benefit of the Ersari Turkmen community living as refugees in Pakistan, and in Afghanistan.