A Study On Folk Carpet Of Uyghur People

Uyghur carpet is the traditional Uyghur handicraft, it is the fusion of spinning, dyeing, knitting and painting with both practical and artistic value. Its origination dates back to more than2000years ago and it has been evolving gradually ever since along with the economic development. Hotan carpet is the most representative one of Xinjiang carpet, and it represents the highest achievement. This thesis conducts an empirical research from the perspective of scientific and technological field archaeology and literature research on Xinjiang Uyghur carpets including Hotan carpets,in hope to have a detailed records and research on the intangible cultural heritage in a systemic way.The dissertation comprises ten chapters.Chapter Ⅰ is introduction. Firstly, it discusses the research background and significance of carpet in Xinjiang. Secondly,it conducts a detailed analysis on research status at home and abroad based on the database related literature analysis. Finally, it elaborates the research contents and research methods in detail.Chapter2is about history. Mainly based on ancient literature about Uyghurs carpet, the excavation report of some ancient tombs in the Tarim basin released by the Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region museum archaeology team, cultural heritage archaeological institute of municipality, Cultural Relics Bureau of municipality after decades of cultural relic archaeology, this chapter has a comprehensive and in-depth study on the origin of the Uyghur folk carpet, concretely analyzes the historical foundation of Uygur Hotan carpet, the ancient environment of Hotan area, including the ancient natural environment of the Tarim basin, the living environment, the changes of ecological environment in ancient Hotan, and the ancient social form in Hotan region.Chapter3to9is about handicraft.The third chapter firstly analyzes the raw materials of Hotan carpet, including the characteristics of Hotan sheep, Hotan traditional cotton varieties and its characteristics etc. Secondly, this chapter analyzes the technical foundation of the ancient Hotan carpet, including weaving technology, printing and dyeing technology, decorative technology and so on, and summarizes the characteristics of ancient Hotan carpet through these content. The fourth chapter firstly analyzes the structure of Hotan carpet, including the constituent elements of its frontal surface and the horizontal structure, etc. Secondly, it analyzes the Uygur Hotan carpet design, including the origin of carpet pattern, the classification of the pattern, the arrangement of design elements, the types and structure of carpet edge design, and arrangement method of edge design and inside pattern and so on. The fifth chapter analyzes the types, characteristic and classification of carpet pattern style of Uyghur Hotan carpet and so on. Chapter6and7are the analysis on raw material processing and printing dyeing processing of Uyghur Hotan carpet respectively, including tools and methods of traditional wool spinning, tools and methods of traditional cotton spinning, and so on. Chapter8and9respectively analyzes the Uighur Hotan carpet-woven machinery and carpet-woven process, including traditional wooden carpet-woven machinery and its structure, steel structure carpet-woven machinery and its structure, along with technical requirements, preparation for carpet weaving, problems encountered in weaving and their solutions, etc.Chapter10is about evaluation, it mainly investigates the comprehensive value of Uyghur Hotan carpet. First of all,it analyzes the consumption value (the original value and exaggerated consumption value), economic value, and social value (employment value, symbolic value, tourism value)of Uyghur Hotan carpet. Furthermore, it analyzes the change of the modern Uyghur Hotan carpet culture, including the production level, the change of the consumption level and cultural level, and so on.The conclusions of the dissertation are as follow.1. Uyghur carpet is represented by Hotan carpet, its emergence and development is decided by its superior geographical conditions. Natural environment in Hotan makes this area abundant with high quality wool and cotton, which provides material foundation for the development of Hotan carpet; Hotan region as an important stagnation point on the silk road acts not only as a transfer station of Chinese and Western goods,but also as the intersection of Western and Chinese textile technology, which makes the textile technology in Hotan region highly developed,and provides technical foundation for the development of Hotan carpet. At the same time, excellent geographical location makes merchants exchange frequently, which facilitates Hotan specialty Hotan carpet’s export, and it becomes a strong driving force for the development of Hotan carpet. In general,the emergence and development of Hotan carpet is ultimately determined by the natural geographical conditions, which is in accordance with natural determinism of civilization in history world.2. The structure characteristics of Hotan carpet determine its decorative pattern, which is derived from production and life practice, and reflects the Uyghur life thoughts and religious ideas, it is the design with extreme national characteristic. There are lots of patterns on Hotan carpet, mainly by natural patchwork arrangement and permutation combination and then expand individual patterns into larger and more complex pattern group. The pattern of carpet and coordination or incoordination arrangements,the edge designs of the carpet, and the patterns inside all have their unique characteristics.3. This thesis systemically and comprehensively introduces Hotan carpet pattern, which has extreme artistic and aesthetic value, and it will be beneficial to designing carpet patterns of current traditional carpet industry.4.This thesis systematically introduces the raw materials processing of Hotan carpet, printing and dyeing process, as well as carpet-woven machinery structure and operation process, which are the first time to be introduced in Chinese literature.5. Hotan carpet as a kind of traditional folk craft has completely different distinction from traditional folk craft in other regions, it is not a kind of demising traditional folk arts and crafts, but a new craftsmanship with vitality under the new situation, mainly because it has its important national consumption value and economic value, social value, and the carpet culture changes slightly in production level, consumption level, and cultural level, which provides new opportunities for the development of Hotan carpet. Hotan carpet industry needs to focus on these changes, transform these changes into consumption psychology, strengthen the consumption demand, and provide continuous, strong power into the development of Hotan carpets, only in this way can they play a positive role in protecting the Hotan carpet.