The Baluch Rugs and Carpets
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Iranian Ethnic Groups: "BALUCHIS
The Baluchis reside mainly in Baluchestan, which is a dry region in the south-eastern part of the Iranian plateau. It extends from the Kerman desert to the rest of Bam and Beshagard mountains, and to the western borderline of the Sind and Punjab provinces of Pakistan. Baluchestan is divided between Iran and Pakistan. Iran and Pakistan had a dispute concerning the border dividing the two parts of Baluchestan, which was resolved by an agreement in 1959. The Iranian Baluchestan is a part of the Sistan and Baluchestan province. Its important towns are Zahedan, Zabol, Iranshahr, Saravan, Chahbahar, etc.
Historically, the Baluchis moved to Makran from Kerman to flee an expedition of the Seljuk in the 11th century. At the time, the Baluchis were nomads. They have never had a centralized government and have been living under a tribal system.
Baluch is the title of several tribes, a small number of which live in the Republic of Turkmenistan. The Baluchis speak Baluchi, which is a West Iranian language of the Indo-European family of languages that has been influenced by the eastern Iranian dialects. It has two branches of northern (Sorhadi) and southern (Makrani) Baluchis. The Iranian Baluch tribes are divided into a number of clans. The most important are the Bameri, Balideh, Bozorgzadeh, Riggi, Sardaar Zaie, Shahbakhsh, Lashari, Mobaraki, Mir Morad Zaie, Naroyee, Nooshsiravani, Barohooyee, Baram-Zehi, and Shir-Khanzayee tribes. The Iranian Baluchis are mostly of the Hanafi sect of the Sunni faith.
A few tribes in the Sistan area are also regarded as Baluch, but they speak Sistani. The language is an abandoned dialect of Persian. The notable ones of these tribes are: Sarbandi, Shahraki, Sargazi, Zamir-Farsyoon, Mir-Arab and Sanjarani."
Pile Rugs of the Baluch: "Most main and minor borders have patterns of the Turkoman origin. For example, the Volute cross is a heraldic square (“kotshanak aine”), which the Tekke and the Salor use as a field design. In some of the rugs the guls are arranged in three vertical rows, with seven or nine guls in each row. This is clearly a Tekke tradition. The Tekke tradition is less obvious in the colors: Aubergine tints in the field, green and gold orange shades in the borders and in the secondary guls are characteristic of the “Zabol-Tekke.” This color combination discriminates their products from those made by the Mahdad-Khani Balouch, who lived around Nehbandan at the eastern edge of the southern Lut desert in 1950.
These Balouch reproduce the Tekke gul and the ghobaghe secondary gul very accurately, but without “vase” motif and with Turkoman colors; i.e., red ground color and no “Zabol” green (Fig. 11). Tekke influence can also be seen in the borders and in pile-woven “herring-bone” stripes on the web-ends. There are never more than two vertical rows of guls, and four or six guls per row are most common."
Reuters AlertNet - Pakistan may face lengthy conflict on Afghan border: "Pakistan may face lengthy conflict on Afghan border
26 Jan 2005 08:03:58 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Amir Zia
QUETTA, Pakistan, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Pakistani forces, already stretched battling Islamic militants and guarding the Indian frontier, could be sliding into a protracted separatist conflict in a key province bordering Afghanistan, military officials and politicians say.
Tribal separatists in the southwestern province of Baluchistan have stepped up a long-simmering insurgency in recent weeks with bomb and rocket attacks on security forces, government buildings and vital economic installations.
The most serious attack came on Jan. 11, when tribesmen fired dozens of rockets at the country's largest gas field at Sui, 400 km (250 miles) southeast of the provincial capital Quetta, killing up to 15 people and cutting supplies for over a week.
When the central government moved troops to Sui to guard against more attacks, militants responded with several assaults on rail lines in Baluchistan, one of which wounded five people, and also bombed a government building in Quetta.
"The militants are heavily armed and operate training camps in areas inhabited mostly by the powerful Marri and Bugti tribes," a military official said on condition of anonymity.
"The situation is grave and the violence could escalate."
On Tuesday, authorities halted night-time train services in Baluchistan, fearing more attacks, and security has been increased at key installations throughout the province.
Tribal separatists have been battling for independence or autonomy for their strategic province bordering Afghanistan ever since the creation of Pakistan in 1947, when colonial Britain granted independence to the Indian sub-continent.
Since then there have been four major armed revolts, the last in 1970s, which was brutally crushed by the military at a cost of thousands of lives.
Legal nationalist groups, which deny links to the militants but broadly support their agenda, say the government's failure to respond to demands for autonomy, jobs and higher royalty payments from mineral resources was strengthening radicals.
MILITARY BASES, MEGA-PROJECTS
Militants have been especially angered by plans to construct new military bases and major development projects they say are aimed at strengthening, not easing, central control.
"People feel that they won't get their rights through democratic and legal means," Akhtar Mengal, president of the Baluchistan National Party.
"The lava had been on the boil for long. There is anger and resentment among the people toward government policies that deny them their rights. They seem to have little choice other than to take up arms and fight."
Sanaullah Baluch, a national senator and opposition leader, said lawmakers like him faced increased criticism, especially from younger separatists who consider legal struggle pointless.
"Militants hold a greater appeal to them," he said.
Baluch nationalists returned to mainstream politics when democracy was restored in Pakistan after military ruler General Zia-ul Haq was killed in an air crash in 1988.
But violence has resumed since nationalists were marginalised politically by the military-led government of President Pervez Musharraf, which launched mega projects like a Chinese-funded deep-sea port at the small fishing town of Gawadar.
A separatist bomb attack killed three Chinese working on the the project last May but it has been completed ahead of schedule and is expected to be formally opened at a ceremony attended by Chinese leaders in February or March.
"Some of the tribal leaders see development and progress as a threat to their grip in their backward areas," said Raziq Bugti, a spokesman of the Baluchistan government.
"By resorting to violence in the garb of demands for rights, they want to derail the development efforts," said Bugti who himself was a guerrilla commander in 1970s insurgency.
"We believe development will weaken the oppressive tribal system and help modernise the society."
The government has said it is ready to address nationalist concerns and promised more jobs in an attempt to defuse tensions.
But nationalists say development programmes are bypassing Baluchis, who could become a minority in their own province because of an influx of workers from other parts of Pakistan.
"Locals are not even given their share in jobs, nor control of their natural resources and coastline. Land in Gawadar is being bought and sold by speculators," Baluch said."
Aljazeera.Net - Pakistani eviction bid to quell Baluchs: "Pakistani eviction bid to quell Baluchs
Friday 28 January 2005, 14:45 Makka Time, 11:45 GMT
Tribesmen are seeking political rights and royalties
Pakistan is to take the most drastic step yet in its bid to crush a tribal rebellion, forcibly evicting all residents within 15 kilometres of the country's biggest gasfield.
Clans in the southwestern province of Baluchistan have recently stepped up their fight for increased political rights as well as more royalties and jobs from abundant local natural resources.
Three weeks ago they began raining rockets on the state-run natural gas plant at Sui, leaving eight dead. A nationalist group linked to the tribesmen has also bombed the region's main railway line three times in the last week.
Now the military says it is to clear 500 dwellings from the area around the gas plant, saying the measure will prevent further attacks and protect residents from the devastating consequences of a major explosion.
Eviction
"I am sure the people of these households are gentle and peaceful citizens, but the terrorists who want to damage this installation are using them as shields against our forces," Colonel Muhammad Mujeeb, commander of paramilitary troops in Sui, told journalists allowed to make a rare visit on Thursday.
Pakistan has so far taken a good-cop, bad-cop approach to the rebels.
Clashes between the army and
rebels killed eight people
The government has held some talks with tribal leaders and has sought to show that it is promoting development in the impoverished province, which borders Afghanistan and Iran.
Police said Friday they had arrested three employees at the gasfield - a manager, a chief medical officer and his deputy - for destroying evidence linked to the alleged gang rape of a woman doctor.
The tribesmen say they launched the Sui attacks to protest the fact that no one was brought to justice over the sex assault claims.
'Don't push us'
Military ruler President Pervez Musharraf warned the rebels shortly after they rocketed the installation: "Don't push us". He also made a pointed reference to a Baluch nationalist uprising that was put down in the 1970s.
Military officials said on Wednesday that they would also set up a new garrison to protect Sui. Officials told AFP on condition of anonymity that up to 800 regular army soldiers and at least 2,000 members of the paramilitary forces have been guarding the area since the attacks.
"The area up to 15 kilometers around the installation must be cleared of any civilian population"
Colonel Muhammad Mujeeb
The authorities are now embarking on new ways to safeguard the installation, which produces at least a fifth of Pakistan's natural gas needs.
"It is up to the government to decide the timeframe, but these people who are being taken hostage by the terrorists are to be removed and the area up to 15 kilometres around the installation must be cleared of any civilian population," Mujeeb said.
"The other reason for shifting these population is that if, God forbid, any incident happens to these installations, thousands of people will be burnt to ashes," he said.
Installation attacked
A further reason for the forced eviction was that 700 acres of government land around the gasfield has been encroached on and must be vacated.
The 500 houses were built in the 1980s, before the plant constructed a fence to maintain security, according to officials from Pakistan Petroleum Limited, which runs the installation.
Five of the eight people killed during the clashes at Sui were civilians, while around 20 houses and 15 civilian vehicles were damaged. The gas supply was also suspended to millions of homes and hundreds of industrial units.
Journalists at the site saw repaired pipelines and some of the damage caused by the attacks, while hundreds of fragments from rockets and mortar shells still littered the ground."
Daily Times - Site Edition: "Expert’s proposed constitutional remedy for Balochistan
Staff Report
KARACHI: Failure to revise the concurrent list of the of the Constitution that determines the quantum of provincial autonomy is the cause of unrest in the smaller provinces, especially Balochistan, the president of the Sindh High Court Bar Association, Akhtar Hussain, said on Thursday.
Talking to Daily Times, he said when the Constitution was made in 1973, it was announced the concurrent list determining the quantum of provincial autonomy would be revised after every 10 years. But this was never done, and that lapse happens to be one of the major causes of unrest in the smaller provinces, Mr Hussain said. “Provincial autonomy is meaningless if the province is not autonomous financially,” he remarked.
“It was essentially lack of financial autonomy that led to disenchantment in East Pakistan in 1971, leading to the creation of Bangladesh,” he said. “There have been instances, for example, in the former Soviet Union when self-determination and even the right to secede was ensured in the constitution and the Soviet republics were free to engage in international trading,” he said.
“Therefore, not a single bullet was fired when these republics opted for independence,” he said. “Nobody should be opposed to development projects like the Gwadar Deep Sea Port,” Mr Hussain said. “But the unskilled labour force in such projects should be absorbed from the local population, and vocational institutions established in Balochistan to provide skill to the local population,” he proposed.
He admitted there would be an influx of skilled workers from other provinces during the development process in Balochistan. But he said these people “should not have the right to vote in Balochistan, and this would remove the apprehensions of the locals that they would become a minority in their own province,” he said. But Barrister Qazi Faez Isa, an advocate of the Supreme Court, blamed the sardars, calling them “the curse of Balochistan.” “They don’t represent Balochistan at all,” he declared. “They kill their own people; they don’t want their people in power.” He reminded the sardari system had been abolished in 1975 and said that for someone to claim to be a sardar is illegal. But he complained that “even the present chief minister of Balochistan (Jam Mir Yusuf) is a sardar.”
Every sardar is a parasite, since he does not work for a living, Mr Isa said.
“They killed Justice Nawaz Mari in cold blood. He would have become chief justice of Balochistan, which was intolerable for them,” according to Mr Isa.
Hard-line Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Bugti “is a convicted murderer, which he admits,” he maintained. “Balochistan’s natural resources do not belong to Mr Bugti, they belong to the people of Balochistan,” Mr Isa declared.“In fact, the curse of Balochistan are the sardars.” He further said: “It is unfortunate that PML leader Mushahid Hussain has not spoken to a single doctor, lawyer or hari of Balochistan. Instead he has spoken to sardars. The provincial government in Balochistan is not even able to spend 30 percent of the development budget. How can they ask for more money? The government should disclose the secret funds it has been providing to sardars. These are used for arming the tribal.”
In an exclusive interview with Daily Times last week, president Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement (PONM) Sardar Ataullah Mengal said Balochistan should have the right to utilise its huge natural resources. With an area of 3,47, 188, square km that is larger than the combined area of Punjab and Sindh, Balochistan comprises 44 percent of Pakistan, has an 800 km long coastline, produces 36 percent if natural gas, according to data compiled by PONM. The province has immense geo-strategic importance since it is hub between South Asia, South West Asia (Middle East) and Central Asia; it shares 1173 km long border with Iranian Balochistan, and 837 km long border with Afghanistan besides having offshore potential of natural resources in Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
Balochistan EEZ covers a wide expanse of 1,80000 square km and is located at the heart of main Sea Trade Route. American scholar Selig S. Harrison in his famous book, “In Afghanistan’s Shadow: Baluch Nationalism and Soviet Temptations” published in 1981, said: “A glance at the map quickly explains why strategically located Baluchistan and the five million Baluch tribesmen who live there could easily become the focal point of superpower conflict. Stretching across a vast expanse of western Pakistan and eastern Iran-an area slightly larger than France-the Baluch homeland commands more than 900 miles of the Arabian Sea coastline, including the northern shores of the Strait of Hormuz, through which oil tankers bound for the West and Japan must pass on their way out of the Persian Gulf.”"
The Telegraph - Calcutta : International: "Pak army glare on Baluch revolt
IMTIAZ GUL
Islamabad, Jan. 16: The Pakistani army appears all set to tackle the latest wave of insurgency sweeping Baluchistan after the province formally sought the federal government’s assistance to secure its gas installations.
While interior minister Aftab Sherpao did not rule out a military operation in the area to restore the government’s writ, provincial authorities, including home minister Mir Shoaib Nausherwani, opposed such an action. “We have simply asked the federal government to take charge of the security,” Nausherwani said.
He said the decision to seek the federal government’s help was prompted by five days of clashes in Sui between security forces and armed men, which claimed at least 10 lives. The clashes disrupted the supply of gas to several parts of the country after a purification plant was hit by rockets, and forced the shutdown of the largest natural gasfield at Sui a couple of days ago.
Rich in natural and mineral resources, Baluchistan is the largest of Pakistan’s four provinces, but has a high illiteracy and unemployment rate.
A low-level insurgency simmering for years gained momentum in recent months after the Baluchistan Liberation Army — which cropped up in the 1980s as a pro-Moscow militant organisation to fight for an independent state comprising all Baluch areas in Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan — stepped up attacks on government installations and personnel.
Leading the insurgency are provincial tribal chiefs — Nawab Akbar Bugti (in whose area of dominance the Sui gas fields are located), Nawab Khair Bakhsh Mari and Sardar Attaullah Mengal. Mengal played an important role in instigating an armed rebellion with Bugti and Mari in the mid-1970s, but the revolt was crushed. At stake is a greater share of natural resources in the province. Besides, the chiefs oppose additional military garrisons that the army plans to set up in the near future.
Joining this chorus is former Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali, who represents Baluchistan’s Rojhan Jamali constituency in the National Assembly. “Such a campaign could not be called a liberation movement. But justice should be done to the people of Baluchistan and their genuine demands should be met after talks,” he said.
The insurgency has led President Pervez Musharraf to issue a stern warning to Baluch nationalists in an interview earlier this week: “Don’t push us. It’s not the seventies, when you can hit and run and hide in the mountains”.
However, political analyst Rashed Rahman pointed out that the army did not succeed in quelling the rebellion in four previous campaigns — in 1948, 1958-62, 1963-69 and 1973-77. “Baluchistan needs fast economic development and special human resource development programmes. It needs more educationists, doctors, engineers, technocrats and enough skilled and semi-skilled people to help build this province.”"
VOA News - Conflict Between Pakistan and Baluch Tribes Intensifies: "Conflict Between Pakistan and Baluch Tribes Intensifies
18-January-2005 0001
A recent conflict between the Pakistani government and tribesmen over gas pipelines in southwestern Baluchistan province appears to be coming to a head.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz says he will use all resources to protect the country's main gasfield after Baluch tribesmen blew up a gas pipeline, disrupting gas supplies to millions of consumers.
Mr. Aziz made the remark at a special cabinet meeting in Islamabad today (Monday). He said his government cannot afford to expose such installations to danger.
Tribal leader Hafizullah Bugti has vowed to resist any attack with full force.
Last week, President Pervez Musharraf warned the rebels that they will not know what hit them if the government decides to respond to their attacks.
At least eight people have been killed in the clashes since last week's blast."
Afghanistan - Baluch: "Baluch
The homeland of the Sunni Baluch in southwestern Afghanistan is in the sparsely settled deserts and semi-deserts of Hilmand Province, although Baluch enclaves are also found in northwestern Faryab Province. These semisedentary and seminomadic populations are famed for camel breeding. They number perhaps around 100,000, although other estimates are lower. Seventy percent of the Baluch live in Pakistan; others reside in Iran. The Baluch speak Baluchi, an Iranian branch in the Indo-European language family; most speak Dari and Pashto as well. Baluch society is tribal, highly segmented and centrally organized under powerful chieftains known as sardars."
Netiran>Travel>Destinations>Sistan va Baloochestan: "Culture Art
Sistan va Baloochestan
Sistan va Baloochestan province has 31 city.After Khorasan, Sistan and Baluchestan is Iran's biggest province with a variety of different Iranian tribes. This province played a very important role in Iran's past and in its legacies. Iran's biggest epical hero, Rostam, was bon in a city called Zabol located in Sistan and Baluchestan. The climate in the most regions of this province is hot and dry. This province has a border with Pakistan and Afghanistan on its east and is connected to the Oman Sea from the south. Chabahar City another free trade zone is located on its south.
Provincial Center: Zahedan
Population: 3,151,568 Million
Area: 178431 Sq. Km
Geographical Position:
Climate: average annual temperature:13,9 centigrade annual rainfal:401mm
Provincial Center to Tehran: 1567 Km
Province Center Area Code: 0541"
Pile Rugs of the Baluch: "Pile Rugs of The Baluch and Their Neighbors,
by Dr. Dietrich H. G. Wegner
Translated from German by Lola Froehlich, August, 1981. Reviewed by Dr. Wegner, May, 1985 This five part article first appeared in Oriental Rug Review, Vol. 5, No. 4, July 1985
Reproduced here with permission of the Publisher
Photo from 'Rugs of the Wandering Baluch' - (Black/Loveless)
FOREWORD
by Tom Cole
For anyone who plans to study this voluminous text, I will not bore you with excessive verbiage. I thought it somewhat important to make this presentation at the same time as the interview with Jerry Anderson published in HALI 76, providing a single reference for much of what we know and do not know about Baluch weavings. Dr. Wegner's contribution at a relatively early time in Baluch studies was commendable but fraught with numerous errors as well as misattributions. Some of the captions to the photos have additional commentary in parentheses written by me. I have a problem with Dr. Wegner's statement regarding the relationship of the Baluch people to the hordes of Ancient Inner Asia, from which he unequivocally concludes the Turkic design pool of Baluch weavings is a derivative process and not original to those people. His dating is suspect, offered without explanation or qualification. Designating the provenance of many of the rugs to 'Seistan' seems, at this point in time, with the experiences I have had in the region, fallacious and confused. Additionally he does not illustrate even one pile weaving that is typical of the Seistan aesthetic. Identifying Fig. 29 as a product of the 'Doktor i Ghazi of Afghanistan' is probably mistaken as well, based merely upon a design element in the field without consideration of palette and structure. What can be said about this text is that "
From The Horses Mouth: "From the Horses Mouth-
Talking 'Baluch' with Jerry Anderson
Original text & photos appeared in HALI 76, � 1994
The study of so-called �Baluch� tribal weaving has reached a watershed. While on the one hand Baluch rugs have cast aside their misleading stereotyped image as derivative Turkoman bastard cousins, on the other we still find in the marketplace the promiscuous use of little understood attributions and terminology founded upon �scholarship� that too often fails to rise above the level of dogma. Loosely based on the sometimes unreliable accounts written by European travellers in the region during previous centuries, or drawing on subjective interpretations of Asian myth and ethnohistory, such popular ascriptions are seldom grounded in properly conducted research or first-hand experience of eastern Iran and Afghanistan. During the past two decades a number of well-known tribal rug writers, dealers and collectors, both American and European, have sought, if not always heeded, the views of a man who has become something of a legend in his own lifetime. Now 62 and living in Karachi, Pakistan, Jeremy (Jerry) Wood-Anderson is, in his own words, �second generation old India born and bred�, the grandson of a Scottish officer who served in the last Afghan campaign. Fluent in several local languages, since the 1950s Anderson has travelled widely throughout the region, on occasion as a zoological surveyor and collector for Western museums, and has lived among the tribes in fixed settlements and nomadic camps in Baluchistan, Sistan, Khorasan and Afghanistan.
Anderson's avowed passionate interest lies in �the ethnography behind tribal rugs, the ancient ethnogenesis of those great Steppeland nomads who gave rise to the piled rug"
What is a Khal Mohammadi rug?: "What is a Khal Mohammadi rug?
Khal Mohammad is a very innovative rug producer from Northern Afghanistan. He is an Ersari Turkmen and a master dyer as well. The Khal Mohammadi rug generally is relatively short pile, expertly finished, and very attractive. Working with natural dyes Khal Mohammed has created attractive Afghan rugs with excellent wool and beautiful color.
I have posted some more pictures of Ibrahim Khal son of Khal Mohammad as well as Zia Hassanzadeh the main US importer of Khal Mohammadi rugs and carpets. "
Accent on Rugs - Fine Carpets and Tapestries: "Welcome to Accent on Rugs of Los Gatos
Fine Rugs and Tapestries for any Decorative Requirement Accent on Rugs of Los Gatos
10 Station Way, Los Gatos, California 95030
Retail Shop Open Tuesday- Saturday 10 - 5
(408)354-8820---fax(408)354-1804 Newly Updated Catalogue with many New Items...more coming daily. Currently over 1000 items online.
New Zoom Feature on Most Categories"
Accent on Rugs - Fine Carpets and Tapestries: "Welcome to Accent on Rugs of Los Gatos
Fine Rugs and Tapestries for any Decorative Requirement Accent on Rugs of Los Gatos
10 Station Way, Los Gatos, California 95030
Retail Shop Open Tuesday- Saturday 10 - 5
(408)354-8820---fax(408)354-1804 Newly Updated Catalogue with many New Items...more coming daily. Currently over 1000 items online.
New Zoom Feature on Most Categories"
Rug Notes Index - K Oriental rugs and carpets by Barry O'Connell,Spongobongo.com: "Kandahar
The city of Kandahar is in Southwest Afghanistan and has been the dividing line between Persia and India for hundreds of years at least.
Circa 1520 it was one of the principle kingdoms of Babur's empire.
Today Kandahar is primarily Pashtun.
Originally founded and named after Alexander (Iskander) the Great. Kandahar as we know it today is very close to how it was laid out by Ahmed Shah Durrani in 1761. Durrani was the founder of the modern Afghan monarchy. he is buried in an octagonal mausoleum next to the shrine of the prophet's cloak.
Kandahar has served as the headquarter of Taliban and formerly the home of Mullah Omar "
