Baluchi Designs

The Baluchis created their weavings under the most primitive conditions. They were geographically isolated and had little contact with wool or dye traders. As a result, they had to become self-sufficient in their development of wool breeding techniques as well as dye products.

Thus, the Baluchi style of weaving is unique within the textile world. Like so many other nomadic weaving cultures in the Near East, Middle East and Far East, their weavings reflected a signature or mirror image of their surroundings, through the use of indigenous materials. From raging sandstorms to roaring floods, the Baluchis’ environment was harsh in the extreme, creating a tribe of fiercely independent and rugged survivalists who required virtually indestructible, desert ready gear in the form of textiles.

There was a gender-related division of labor within these Farsi speaking Sunni Muslim Baluchis and their world of textile weaving: men bought and dyed the wool and did any trading or business, while only women wove textiles. Baluchi women weavers employed ingenious and skillful techniques as well, and through their inventive use of these materials, primarily natural undyed colored wool from goats, sheep and horses, they replicated, in their textiles, the natural colors they actually saw in their surroundings. From simple horizontal ground looms made from tree branches or whatever else they found close by, they created weavings that are marvelously intricate yet incredibly durable.

Like all Turkoman desert nomadic weavings, Baluchi textiles are dark. Turkoman rugs are all dark red, but unlike those weavings, Baluchis are made exclusively from dark brown wools. And, because much of that wool is not dyed, the colors are somber and understated. In addition, nomadic peoples were forced to tolerate the bright, hot light of desert sun during the day. Thus, when they entered their tents during the day and at night, they preferred dark rugs and textiles, which granted a respite from the glare of the sun, and conformed with their religious views as well.

The Use of Symbols in Baluchi Designs

The earliest Baluchis, from the Caspian Sea, were located near the Old Silk Route. As goods were traded back and forth over the centuries they were influenced by ancient Chinese philosophy and its symbols, which they incorporated into their designs. This exposure to Chinese cultures created designs in their textiles that were both utilitarian and spiritual. The light/dark patterns in the Baluchi textiles represent the ancient Chinese symbols of polarity known as yin and yang, positive and negative, male and female, day and night, etc. These symbols are often overlapped with woven images representing the Eli BelI Ende, translated “woman with hands on hips” or the birthing position. This is the ubiquitous female goddess of fertility, the most frequent motif in Baluchi textiles, next to the yen yang motif. Turkoman tribes, from which the Baluch are descended, included the octagonal-shaped gul or flower in almost all of their designs. Each of this symbol’s eight sides represent the 8 elemental forces in nature, represented in the Chinese Book of Changes, by eight separate trigrams. The octogan itself represents the Chinese “Great Circle of Life”.