Turkmen national costumes

Along with the famous carpets and sophisticated silver jewelry, traditional costumes are a wonderful expression of Turkmenistan's arts and crafts. The beautiful pieces of clothing were created from handmade fabrics with intricate silk embroidery. Over long centuries they were adapted to the climate, terrain and lifestyle of the Turkmen people. The traditional costumes create a distinct harmony between the people and the surrounding nature.

Silk ketenifabric

Turkmenistan is the home of keteni fabric woven by hand from silk. The region's natural conditions were conducive to mulberry cultivation, and Turkmen have long successfully raised silkworms. Their silk fabrics were prized and sought after for their durability and color selection. Since ancient times, keteni silk was used to sew traditional costumes.

Turkmen have mastered a unique weaving technique peculiar to them, and one of the main features of keteni is its dyeing. The name itself comes from the Persian "keten" or Arabic "katton" and means fabric. The quality of the dye plays an important role. In ancient times, the fabric was dyed with natural dyes, hence the special intensity of the colors and their durability.

In Turkmenistan, the color red was preferred since ancient times. Red was attributed with magical qualities and protection from evil forces. The source of the red dye was marzana barvara, a plant grown for dyeing purposes. Its rhizomes contain alizarin, a red dye known in ancient times. Indigo was used to impart the color blue. Also used were pomegranate peel, nut, onion. Tea and some insects.

Turkmen women learn the technique of weaving and sewing clothes from an early age. Artisans use an ancient tara loom with a width of 30-40 cm, which used to determine the cut of a dress. After the time-consuming process of preparing the threads, the skillful hands of the weaver flip the shuttle from side to side, fixing the threads and laboriously creating a long sheet of keteni.

The loose and wide Turkmen costume perfectly suited the previous nomadic lifestyle. In it it was comfortable to both ride a horse and sit on the ground; it was airy in the heat and warm in the cool season.

Men's attire

Turkmen men's attire consisted of a loose shirt and wide-legged pants, sewn from cotton cloth. A chalat with long, ruffled sleeves and a shawl collar was worn on top. The festive challah was sewn from striped silk fabric, usually red with narrow white and black stripes. The edges were trimmed with colored ribbon, and the challah itself was sewn on a lining and quilted from top to bottom. On cold days and for ceremonies, two-three chalats were worn. The winter outfit was a long sheepskin sheepskin coat, wool inside, cut to resemble a chalat.

On their feet they wore short slippers with their noses rolled up, postols (pawpaws) made of rawhide or sandals, which they put on over wool socks. Among wealthy Turkmen, white leather shoes with heels were popular. They also wore soft boots with leather wellingtons - kovush.

A large cap of black, brown or white lambskin - telpek - served as a headdress. It was worn over a yarmulke (so that when it was removed one was not left with a bare head), and had many variations. The sheepskin papacha is the main sign of dignity for a man-Turkmen. Demonstratively ripping the telpek off the head was considered a great insult, which was often washed away in blood.

The telpek is an almost universal cap, protecting in summer from the scorching sun, in winter from the cold, and in inclement weather from the rain. It also has its inconveniences - first and foremost, its considerable size, which undoubtedly gets in the way in some jobs and in life. But for this case the just-mentioned yarmulke - a small black cap - comes in handy, so the telpek can be safely removed without the inconvenience of remaining with a bare head.

The color of the cap can tell a lot about the owner. Thus, a white telpek is worn by a young dzhigit, black and dark brown - by an older man and an old man. There are also red telpek, which only representatives of one of the privileged socio-religious groups are allowed to wear.

Women's clothing

Women's clothing has so far retained the characteristics of traditional folk costume. In the present time, there has been a revival of interest in Turkmen decorative arts, and splendid women's costumes have become fashionable again.

The costumes of Turkmen women are dominated by various shades of red. This color, which was a favorite in Turkmen folk art, symbolized the life-giving forces of nature, and was attributed magical properties - promoting well-being, health, protection from evil sight. Designs covering the collars, sleeves and halves of khalats and shirts are also associated with such imagery. Different ornaments and colors are characteristic for certain regions and tribal groups. Embroidery is a traditional women's occupation, taught to girls as young as eight and ten years old. Turkmen women artists had many types of stitches, embroidering patterns with different colored silk threads of different thickness.

Women's costume, like men's, consisted of a straight cut shirt (dress), pants, a chalat and a headdress. A woman's "rubacha" differs from a man's actually only in length, the form of the collar and the number of embroidered ornaments. Women's rubachas of most Turkmen tribes were sewn from red, raspberry or maroon hand-woven silk. Older women wore dresses-rubachas in dark colors with modest embroidery.

Wide challahs - chabytes and chequemen - of a simple cut with slits at the sides served as the outer garment for men and married women. Challahs were also sewn from silk fabrics of dark blue, dark green or red with white or yellow stripes. The cutouts, edges, hem and side slits were decorated with narrow ribbon. Expensive festive garments of green or red cloth were distinguished by magnificent embroideries. Sometimes on the street or at home in the presence of strange men, women used the challah as a headdress.

A very important and obligatory part of a married woman's daily attire was the kurte or czyrpyhead bedspread - a kind of head scarf. Due to its special purpose, it was smallerthan ordinary chalats and had decorative quasi-sleeves. The festive headgear was almost entirely covered with rich floral ornaments.

A permanent and obligatory part of the headgear of men, girls and children was a hemispherical yarmulke made of silk, embroidered with a fine geometric pattern. The headgear of married women was very varied. The most popular was the borik, resembling a truncated cone, with its larger base turned upward. It was covered by a head scarf with colorful geometric patterns on the edge.

The national costume of Turkmen women cannot do without jewelry ornaments, often serving as a kind of amulet, protecting against disease and infertility. If you look closely, you can see in these ornaments stylized figures of animals and insects sometimes associated with images of people. As early as three or four years old, bracelets were put on girls and pearl buttons and beads were sewn onto their clothes. The amount of decoration increased as the girl grew older.

Particularly noteworthy is the girl's cap - a small silver "dome" - kupby. From the edge of this canopy, silver plates ending in pendants are distributed over the entire surface. Such a headgear with a bunch of feathers on top resembles a small combat helmet.

The headgear of girls and married women is complemented by a multitude of plates, pendants, pins. The amount and nature of jewelry ornaments depends primarily on the wealth of the woman. For ceremonial occasions, a woman from a wealthy family would put on six to eight kilograms of ornaments.

Jewelry craftsmanship was carried out by master-weavers, forging both weapons and beautiful ornaments for women. Unlike carpet weaving, which was done by women, the art of jewelry making was an exclusively male occupation. The profession of armorers and jewelers was held in high esteem among the Turkmen.

For the creation of ornaments, mainly silver was used with inserts of natural stones: carnelian, which provides peace, joy and prosperity; turquoise, which improves vision; coral, which gives wealth and abundance of all fruits. The surface of the product was covered with engraved geometric and floral designs. Different Turkmen tribes have distinctive ornamental elements, but they all share proportionality, simplicity and massiveness.

The folk costumes and jewelry products of the Turkmen people express the aesthetic ideas of the nation with its old and rich culture, going back centuries.

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Turkmen national costumes

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Vitrum - Roman glass

Aimaks - a confederation of nomadic tribes in Afghanistan

Tatar wedding - rituals and customs

Colonial coins and the sparkling pride of the Mapuche people

Turkmen national costumes

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