Oriented on making people closer

The Turkmen people gave the world a unique, unparalleled artistic product of practical purpose - the original carpet. The rich palette of this handmade product, which is equal to a real miracle, prompts us to comprehend it in a special context and, primarily, in the socio-philosophical context. Such an attempt was made by Doctor of Sociological Sciences, Professor Ovezdurdy MUKHAMETBERDIEV, who shared his reflections in his essay:

"...It can be stated that there is a certain gap between the interpretation of this obvious phenomenon and the fact of its real existence.

In order to address this gap, we propose a different approach - a philosophical one. Its essence is based on the assumption that if being determines consciousness, the latter, in its turn, likens the former (i.e., being) to itself. In doing so, consciousness reconstructs being in its own way and in its own image, in accordance with the complex of ideas and perceptions that consciousness has at a given time, constituting its content.

In light of this assumption, we can mentally reconstruct the course of reasoning (of course, adjusted for the increased possibilities of expressing thoughts in language) of the ancient ancestors of Turkmens at the inception of carpet weaving. It seems reasonable to conclude that, as a people under the overwhelming influence of the desert, they probably thought in this way:

-All around is the vast, endless sands of the Karakums are a kind of infinity, a difficult continent; it is a path leading away into the unknown, a road that can lead "nowhere".

This means that the environment, the natural context, and, in a broader sense, being, prompted them to reason as follows:

-We must reckon with a harsh reality that is beyond our control... It is it that has power over us, and we, being in it, are dependent on it - on this vast desert.

But if this is the reality that surrounds us, is it not possible to reverse the relation "we are in the environment" to inverse, to the opposite - "the environment (desert) is in us (in our consciousness)? And if this is possible, then it (the desert) will be ours, subject to us.

If we assume that our ancestors thought exactly this way or approximately this way, then here we are dealing not just with an illusion or unfulfilled fantasy (pure subjectivity), but with a mental (ideal, spiritual) translation of the desert into a human micro similarity, which took the form of a carpet in the mind, a small "desert" as a veil (protection) from the big one.

It seems that there is a direct correlation between the image of the desert and its imagined analogue. If the desert itself is challenging to overcome, then with its imaginary-transformed likeness one can easily separate oneself from it (by veiling oneself from it with a partition invented, or rather, suggested by her), if one only realizes this idea.

In other words, to weave the imaginary with their hands, turning the conceived into a carpet.

It appears that this was approximately the logic of actions of the ancient ancestors of our people at the time of the inception of carpet weaving as a kind of applied art.

With regard to the genesis of the artistic and expressive aspect of the Turkmen carpet, in particular, the peculiarities of its ornamentation and color scheme, which is based on the variety of shades of red color, one can mentally see such a picture: does not the black storm of sand in the rays of the yellow sun give a reddish background, sparse with gaps?

The "rampaging" jets of sand are, of course, inherently chaotic. However, the human being is a definite entity. And certainty presupposes order, ordering of the material at one’s disposal.

Isn't this where the geometrization of carpet ornamentation originates from?

It seems that there are no a priori grounds to exclude such an assumption.

This is one of several potential explanations for the phenomenon known as the Turkmen carpet.

Furthermore, I would like to note that this version does not contradict the concept according to which the territory of present Turkmenistan, 80 percent of which is occupied by the Karakums, has long been the area where the birth and formation of the Turkmen ethnos originated, and another one, derived from the first concept, according to which Turkmens are the heirs of civilizations and cultures that existed earlier on this land.

This can be asserted by tracing and drawing parallels between the monuments of former cultures preserved on the Turkmen land and the national culture of the modern Turkmen people.

And the example of the carpet is only one of them...".

Photo: orient.tm