Asian Textiles: Textiles of Nomadic People from Asia
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Saddlebags with Nested Diamonds, Cappadocia, Turkey, Mid-20th century
Asian Gallery (Toyokan) Room 13
February 6, 2024 (Tue) - April 14, 2024 (Sun)These textiles were collected by Ms. Matsushima Kiyoe, a researcher of nomadic peoples who was passionate about the nomads of West Asia. She collected these items in West Asia from the 1960s to the 1980s.
Since ancient times, nomadic people lived itinerantly together with their livestock, moving around the plateau regions that stretch from northwestern India to Pakistan, Afghanistan, and from Iran to Turkey. Without fixed places of residence, they acted as tribes. The nomads were self-sufficient in all the necessities of their daily lives, therefore their clothes, bags, sheets for tents, and other textile items were all created by spinning the wool from their livestock, or by turning woolen fibers into felt. Each tribe also developed unique designs, so that they could indicate their tribes from a distance. In today’s world, the lives of nomads have also modernized, as a result of which their culture is gradually being lost.
| Designation | Name | Creation/ Excavation/ Provenance |
Period | Acquisition/ Ownership/ Accession Number |
CMT | ||
| Highlight | Rug with Linked Diamonds and Geometric Patterns | Western Iran | Start of the 20th century | TI-561-3 | |||
| Highlight | Bag (Fragment) with Stripes, Animals, and Geometric Patterns | The Bakhtiari people; western Iran | First half of the 20th century | TI-569-6 | |||
| Highlight | Rug with Nested Diamonds and a Geometric Pattern | The Kurd people; Iran | Start of the 20th century | TI-561-5 | |||
| Highlight | Saddlebags with Nested Diamonds | Cappadocia, Turkey | Mid-20th century | TI-565-7 |