PAKISTAN > GHAZNIS

Pakistan dominated the carpet market for many years producing high quality Bokhara rugs (elephant foot pattern) with over 14,000,000 looms producing this quality rug. Pakistan has also attracted many Turkoman refugees from Iran, Afghanistan and the Caucasus’s with the unrest in these regions. This has led to a huge change in the carpet production in this country. Pakistan is the foremost producer of hand-spun vegetable dye rugs, Kazaks and very fine decorative carpets utilising New Zealand wool due to their commonwealth connections.

Although the producer of these rugs is based in Lahore many of the looms are scatter through Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Caucasus as the weavers are exclusively Turkoman in origin. Their weaving history goes back many hundreds of years and are by far the most skillful artisans when utilizing hand-spun yarns and vegetable dyes. The wool for these amazing rugs comes from the northern Afghan province of Ghazni where the sheep produce a long staple and lustrous wool due to the cool temperatures found on the mountain pastures in this region most suitable for these age old techniques. We avoid the purchase of Chobi grade which tends to use local Pakistan wools which are too short a staple for this type of rug.