China | Xinjiang | Khotan | Carpet Factory

Wandered by the carpet factory in Khotan. A friendly Uighur woman who spoke a little bit of English explained to me what was going on. Although they made the silk carpets here for which Khotan is so famous, at the moment they were making only wool carpets. They use both Chinese and Uighur designs. A 1.2 x 1.8 meter wool carpet takes two people two months to make. A 3.3 x 4 meter carpet takes five people two months to make. A mammoth 15 by 20 meter (50 by 65 feet) carpet, one of the largest ever made here, and now on the wall of the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, took fifteen people four months to make. In the sales room (where, curiously, photography was not allowed) I was shown a 4.3 by 6.8 meter (14 by 22 feet) carpet selling for about $2400). This was wool of course. Silk carpets are much, much more expensive. A four-by-six-foot silk carpet could easily sell for $6000-$8000 even here in the factory. Back in Urumqi, in the carpet store at the Provincial Museum, I was shown a 14 by 22 inch rug (that’s inches, mind you) that was selling for a whopping $5800). This was a 1200 knots per inch with a very special design. Obviously this small piece was intended as a wall hanging, a work of art, and not a carpet to be trod on; it was barely big enough to serve as a door mat.

 Women working in the carpet factory (click on photos for enlargements)

  Woman working in the carpet factory

  Woman working in the carpet factory

 Women working in the carpet factory

Even back in Beijing I had been informed by knowledgeable people that the women in Khotan are renowned all over Xinjiang for their beauty. My friend, a Uighur from Ili, in northern Xinjiang, could not keep a note of envy, even jealousy, out of her voice when talking about the women of Khotan. Such eyes! Like amber and obsidian! Such hair! Like Khotanese silk (of course)! Such eyebrows! Like young willow leaves! Such straight noses! Like carved from jade! Such lips! Like ripe pomegranates! Such breasts! Like Hami melons! she kept raving. All Xinjiang men want a wife from Khotan, she claimed. Xuanzang, the peripatetic Chinese monk who visited here in 644, was noticeably silent on this issue, however. Marco Polo also visited Khotan, in the thirteenth century, and although he had much to say about the women of Hami—another town in Xinjiang—who were renowned for their unbridled sensuality, if not necessarily for their beauty, apparently none in Khotan caught his fancy, or at least none that he cared to write about.

 Khotanese beauty working in the carpet factory. Note the young-willow-leaf-like eyebrows and carved-from-jade-like nose.

Another Khotanese beauty working in the carpet factory. Note the amber-and-obsidian-like eyes.

China | Xinjiang | Khotan | Silk Factory

Wandered by Khotan on the southern edge of the Taklimakan Desert in western China. I was following the footsteps of Chinese Buddhist pilgrim and inveterate gadabout Xuanzang who visited Khotan circa 644 A.D. during his 17-or-so-year sojourn from China to India and back.  He left the following account of what was then the kingdom of Khotan:

This country is about 4000 li in circuit; the greater part is nothing but sand and gravel; the arable portion is very contracted. What land there is, is suitable for regular cultivation, and produces an abundance of fruits. The manufactures are carpets, haircloth of the highest quality, and fine-woven silken fabrics. Moreover, it produces white and green jade. The climate is soft and agreeable, but there are tornadoes which bring with them clouds of flying gravel. They [the residents of the country] have a knowledge of politeness and justice. The men are naturally quiet and respectful. They love to study literature and the arts, in which they make considerable advance. The people live in easy circumstances, and are contented with their lot.

 Location of Khotan (click on photos for enlargements)

To this day the products of Khotan have not changed much. Silk, carpets, and jade remain the city’s chief attractions. First I checked out the Silk Factory.

 Graybeard at his loom in the silk factory 

Silk worm cocoons

Closer view of the silk cocoons. Now about 40% of the raw silk cocoons are imported from Pakistan. Each cocoon, when unwound, contains about a one-kilometer-long length of silk filament.

The cocoons are heated over fires to kill the worm within, and then boiled to loosen the filaments. Then a mass of filaments are gathered together and twisted into one silk thread.

The silk thread runs from through the gadget in the middle to the foot-trundle powered spindle run by the woman on the left.

Spindle of pure silk thread

Skeins of pure silk thread

The main product of this factory is so-called atlas silk. The silk is tie-dyed using either chemical dyes or natural dyes made from local plants and minerals and then woven into four-meter-long lengths which can be used to make dresses, etc. The loom above is using chemically dyed thread.

Chemically dyed atlas silk

Naturally dyed atlas silk

 Naturally dyed atlas silk

Huge skeins of dyed silk in the factory showroom. The naturally dyed silk is much more expensive than the chemically dyed version. One four-meter-length of chemically dyed atlas silk costs about $30, while the naturally dyed version cost about $72.

These are the prices at the factory. Even the stores in Khotan, like this one, itself charge much more, and in Urumqi the price is typically doubled, although of course hard bargaining can knock the price down considerably.

It might be added that Khotan, and the Taklimakan Desert in general, has been posited as One Of The Physical Locations of the legendary kingdom of Shambhala. However, Lamas in Mongolia staunchly maintain that Shambhala can be found only in the Seventh Dimension, and not in the mundane three-dimensional world that most—but not all!—of us know and love.

G. Nyam-Ochir, currently one of Mongolia’s leading Shambhalists

 Superimposed here on the Taklimakan Desert is Kalapa, the capital of Shambhala.