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Shayqaltas and Other Small Bags

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Costume

Contents

The Shayqalta 

Geographical and Tribal Origin 

Structure 

Materials 

Types of Shayqalta 

Other Small Bags 

Historical Background 

Pronunciation of Karakalpak Terms 

References 

The Shayqalta 

The Karakalpak shayqalta is a small cloth bag, usually rectangular in sha

lined with printed cotton, and open at the top. It is colourfully decorated w

finely executed silk embroidery and is usually edged on all four sides withraspberry red jiyek . A long cord, decorated in red and green chevrons and

terminating with a bunch of tassels, normally red and green, is frequently

fastened to the upper part of one side. Occasionally this is missing, or els

the tassels are attached directly to the bag.

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Karakalpak shayqal ta  held by the Savitsky Museum of Art, No'kis.

Shayqalta is simply Karakalpak for tea bag (••• ••••• in Karakalpak), qalta 

being derived from halta, the old Turkic word for a bag or small sack. Suc

bags are supposedly designed for carrying dried leaf tea from a man’s wa

belt, although every example we have examined shows little sign of any

regular wear and no indication at all of ever having been used for holding

tea.

This is because what may once have been a utilitarian bag for holding teahad, by the early 20th century, been transformed into a symbolic wedding

gift. The dowry of every prospective bride included a shayqalta, lovingly

embroidered as a present for her future husband and traditionally handed

over after the first night of the marriage. As such they were never regular

used or worn, other than at times of major festivities. They seem to be fou

mainly among the northern Qon’•rat ar•s.

They are an unusual item of Karakalpak male costume since embroidery

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hardly ever appears on men’s clothing and when it does it is usually

conservatively understated.

A Turkmen embroidered tea bag from the Russian Ethnography Museu

Saint Petersburg.

Of course, shayqaltas are not unique to the Karakalpaks. Somewhat sim

bags are found among the neighbouring Uzbeks and Turkmen. According

 Anna Morozova, M.S.Andreyev (who collected items from Bukhara for the

Uzbek State Museum of Art in 1936) reported that cross-stitch embroiderbags were an obligatory part of Bukharan men's costume during the 19th

century. They were hung from the waist-belt and were used for keeping a

comb, money and other small things.

Geographical and Tribal Origin

In June 2006 the Karakalpak State Museum of Art named after Savitsky

kindly analysed their collection of 66 shayqaltas on our behalf, not onlyaccording to design but also by the geographical region and the tribal

affiliation of the former owners. This showed that they had originated from

regions of the Aral Delta – Qon'•rat, Moynaq, Qarao'zek, Xojeli, Kegeyli, a

No'kis city.

Unfortunately only 16 of the 66 had record cards indicating the tribal origi

their former owners:

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  Ar•s Tribe Number 

On To'rt Ur•w Q•pshaq 1

Qon'•rat

 Ashamayl• 2

Balg'al• 3

Baymaql• 2

Q•yat 5

Mu'yten 2

Tog'•z Aq 1

Total 16

Interestingly 15 of these came from tribes and clans belonging to theQon’•rat ar•s and only one from the Q•pshaq tribe of the On To'rt Ur•w ar

Of course the tribe of the owner is not necessarily the same as the tribe o

the original maker, although there is a good chance that they belong to th

same ar•s since the Qon'•rat live in the north of the delta and the On To'rt

Ur•w in the south.

Structure

Shayqaltas vary considerably in length from 15½ to 23cm, and in width fr

9½ to 16cm. The most common length is 18 to 19cm, and the most comm

width is 15 to 16cm.

Over two thirds of shayqaltas were made specifically from scratch and th

basic layout is fairly constant. They were made from a rectangular piece o

handwoven cotton bo'z , twice the length of the required bag. This was eit

plain or shat•rash, a finely checked cloth woven from alternating red and

black warps and wefts.

The first operation was to embroider the central field of the bag, using eit

cross-stitch or a form of satin-stitch known as teris qay•w  (meaning oppos

or reverse side) stitch. The latter stitch is executed on the rear side of the

textile. Once completed, the embroidered field was bordered with narrow

strips of contrasting qara and q•z•l ush•ga, the black cloth being used to

form an outer border around all four sides of the field and the red cloth us

to form either a single inner strip at each end or occasionally a complete

inner border between the qara ush•ga and the field. The ush•ga borders a

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strips were then embroidered with rows of simple repetitive motifs using

chain-stitch, the joins between the central field and the strips of ush•ga 

being concealed with rows of coloured satin-stitch known as qa'w•p tigis o

in rare cases with overstitching using gold metal-wound thread. The inne

face of the bag could now be lined with a similar sized rectangle of

commercial printed cotton cloth, leaving the outermost edges to be finishe

usually with a border of plain raspberry red jiyek . In some cases however

threads of contrasting colour might be included to form a patterned jiyek  edging; in others the red jiyek  might be patterned geometrically by means

overembroidery.

Standard layout of a Karakalpak shayqal ta  embroidered in cross-stitc

The qara us h•ga  is decorated with sh iy law•sh  wood-plane motifs at the t

and qum•r•sqa bel  or "waist-of-an-ant" motifs down the sides.The Richardson Collection.

Now a length of narrow braid or tape was handwoven in warp substitution

technique using a double set of red and green silk warps, thereby creatin

an alternating pattern of red and green chevrons. One end of the tape wa

finished with a set of matching red and green tassels often with small,

predominantly white, beads at their ends.

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The rectangular sides of the bag were then folded in half and sewn along

two sides to form a bag. A gap of about 1 to 2cm was often left at the top

each seam for ease of access to the contents of the bag. The tape and

tassels were sewn to the top of the bag at one side.

However not all bags were made in this fashion. Some were made utilizin

sections of patterned embroidery recovered from previously used items, f

example from the orta qara (middle black) of a q•z•l kiymeshek , the jag'a 

(collar) of an aq jegde, or a section of jen'ush (sleeve cuff).

Karakalpak shayqaltas  in chain-stitch come in a wide variety of pattern

This one has a version of sh ayan quy r•q  or scorpion's tail motif down th

sides.The Richardson Collection.

Several of the examples of this type that we have examined have strips o

embroidered qara ush•ga bordering the two long sides of the embroidery

fragment but not the ends, just like the example above. The two outer edg

and sometimes the internal joins are then finished in strips of red jiyek . Th

textile is then folded to form the bag, the unfinished ends being sewn to a

separate cuff, which forms the top opening of the bag. There does not se

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to be any particular reason for this. The rough ends of the piece of orta q

could just as easily be covered by an insert of embroidered ush•ga as in

normal construction technique. The addition of the cuff (which obviously o

has one seam) means that a small gap can only be left on one side and

therefore access to the contents of these bags is made slightly more diffic

Materials

Bo ’z 

Karakalpaks used two types of cloth for embroidery. The first of these wa

rather coarse handwoven cotton fabric called bo'z . This was woven in pla

cotton and could be dyed or left undyed. It was used for making children’s

clothing, shirts, simple ko'yleks (dresses), and for the aq jegdes and aq

kiymesheks. Blue bo’z , known as matar  by the Uzbeks, was used for ko'k

ko'yleks and jen'se (oversleeves). One form of bo'z  was woven with finer

spun cotton warps and wefts, which both alternated between sections of and black, resulting in a finely checked cloth known as shat•rash.

Because of its coarse grid-like structure, bo'z  lent itself to the embroidery

geometric patterns using cross-stitch. Meanwhile shat•rash was particula

favoured for satin-stitch embroidery. In the example shown below the

shat•rash (checked) bo'z  is clearly visible above the silk embroidered •rg'

(zig-zag) pattern.

The chequered shat•rash  exposed above the satin-stitch of the centra

field. The Richardson Collection.

Ush•ga 

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The other fabric that was commonly used by the Karakalpaks was ush•ga

This is a machine-made felted woollen broadcloth which was highly prize

by the Karakalpaks in the past. In its red form it was used to make the fro

of the q•z•l kiymeshek . Fragments of this cloth were put to a variety of us

on duwash•q (amulets for the yurt door), on children's clothing, and so on

is therefore not surprising that scraps of this cloth featured heavily in thes

bags.

Over 60% of all of the bags we have seen have pieces of both q•z•l  (red)

and qara (black) ush•ga inserted. Because the warps and wefts of the

ush•ga are concealed by the felting, the structure of this cloth lends itself

free-flowing embroidery in chain-stitch.

Jiyek 

The edges and sections of the bags were often finished with decorativestrips of braid called jiyek , as were the sections on kiymesheks. The initia

appearance is of a separately made braid that has been attached to the

edges and joins of the bag, but this is not the case. The jiyek  was directly

woven onto the textile by means of a finger-weaving method called "warp

twining by loop manipulation" using sets of silk cords, raspberry-coloured

silk being the most popular, especially in combination with green.

It required two people to weave the jiyek . Firstly six, eight, or ten long loo

of silk cord were attached to the edge of the unfinished bag at a particula

point by one of the weavers. The ends of the loops were held by the secoweaver so that they passed around the ends of her fingers, half of the loo

on the fingers of one hand and half on the fingers of the other. The loop

manipulation involved slipping the loops from the fingers of one hand

through the corresponding loops on the other hand, a dexterous weaver

being able to do this for all pairs of loops at the same time. To create the

"braid" or jiyek , the first weaver would couch the first set of loops to the

textile before the first manipulation by passing a needle threaded with the

base colour through the shed formed by the two sets of loops. As each

subsequent manipulation occurred a further couching thread was added.This thread effectively became the weft of the braid and was repeatedly

looped over the edge of the bag and then sewn back through from the ba

to the front to form the next weft. From the rear of the flattened-out bag th

weft thread appears like a coarse blanket stitch. Of course the latter was

hidden internally once the bag was folded and sewn along its sides.

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Warp-twining by loop manipulation, using just two loops.From "The Techniques of Split-Ply Braiding" by Peter Collingwood. Ima

courtesy of Peter Collingwood.

Simple motifs, mainly half diamonds, could be created using different

coloured threads. When the two edges of the piece of shayqalta were

brought together, these half diamonds would meet and form a whole

diamond. As a short-cut some jiyek  was woven in red silk and then

overembroidered with contrasting coloured threads using a loop-stitch to

create simple geometric patterns.

Linings

Most shayqaltas are lined with machine-printed cotton. This was imported

into Central Asia from Russia in increasingly large quantities from the mid

19th century onwards. Over time the manufacturers changed their design

to reflect the taste of the local buyers. Red floral patterns were especially

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popular. One favourite pattern was known as ayd•ll• and it is found on the

backs of kiymesheks, as the outer covering of shapans, and even as

turbans. Some bags are lined with a mixture of several different pieces,

obviously utilizing every scrap of fabric available. A few bags are left unlin

and some have a lining of Bukharan ikat.

Gold Metallic Thread

 Although most stitching was done using silk thread, a few bags incorpora

small amounts of gold metallic thread used either as highlights on the bag

itself or, more commonly, as a winding on the top of the tassels.

Gold thread work surrounding the q•z•l ush•ga  panel of a satin-stitch

shayqal ta . The Richardson Collection.

Types of Shayqalta 

There are 3 main types of shayqalta:

1. Kerege Ko’z  Pattern in Cross-Stitch Embroidery

These are by far the most common type of shayqalta, accounting for abo

40% of all examples held by the Savitsky Museum. The central field is

embroidered with a diamond lattice using cross-stitch, or sh•r•s tigis.

Karakalpaks call this pattern kerege ko'z nag'•s, meaning the eyes of the

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yurt lattice motif.

A kerege ko'z  patterned shayqal ta  with stepped diamonds embroidered

cross-stitch.The qara us h•ga  is decorated with a row of solaq  motifs (part of a wood

cart) beneath the qum•r•sqa bel  motifs.

The Richardson Collection.

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A kerege ko'z  patterned shayqal ta  with crosses embroidered in cross-stit

In addition to qum•r•sqa bel , the qara us h•ga  is decorated with solaq  and

mu'y iz  motifs.

The Richardson Collection.

The elements of the design are small coloured rectangles of cross-stitch,

the lattice cells are in the form of stepped diamonds. In some examples t

cells remain empty, in others they contain either stepped diamonds or

crosses, often arranged in alternating coloured rows.

Diamond lattice patterns are common in Karakalpak folk art. Similar

embroidery patterns can be found in aq jegdes and on the front of ko'k

ko'yleks. Karakalpak master carvers often used lattice patterns on the fro

of sabayaq wooden chests, using two alternating motifs without a centralcomposition.

2. Ιrg'aq  Pattern in Satin-Stitch Embroidery

The second group of shayqaltas all have a pattern known as •rg'aq (zigza

consisting of parallel rows of coloured horizontal zigzags on a red

background. They are usually embroidered on shat•rash bo'z  using a

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reverse satin-stitch known as teris qay•w . This literally means reverse sid

and was sewn working from the back side of the fabric. Small stitches are

made very tightly together, parallel to the warp of the backing cloth, cove

it with the silken threads. The zigzag pattern is achieved by counting the

weft threads.

A •rg 'aq  patterned shayqal ta  embroidered in satin-stitch. The Richardso

Collection.

 Almost 23% of the shayqaltas in the Savitsky Museum collection are of th

type.

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Illustration of the te ri s qay•w  stitch from the front and the back. The

Richardson Collection.

From Klavdiya Antipina, 1962.

 According to Klavdiya Antipina the same stitch was widespread among b

the northern and the southern Kyrgyz, although the number of items that

they embroidered with it was very limited. The Kyrgyz called the stitch

terskaiuk . It was particularily associated with the Karakalpaks in Central A

and was also found among some of the peoples of the Volga region.

3. Decorative Patterns in Chain or Cross-Stitch Embroidery

The third type of shayqalta has a central field of ush•ga, generally decorain chain-stitch or ilme, but occasionally in cross-stitch. However on closer

examination these are virtually all made from fragments of embroidery

recovered from older female garments, the most frequently occurring item

being a chain-stitch fragment from a q•z•l kiymeshek ald•:

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A chain-stitch shayqal ta  based on a fragment of orta qara  from a kiymesh

The central field is qora l• gu 'l  or fenced flower. The Richardson Collect

Other sources include aq jegde jag'a, aq kiymeshek ald•s, and jen'se mad

from blue bo’z .

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A cross-stitch shayqal ta  based on a fragment of an aq jegde . The

Richardson Collection.

Some 21 of the 66 shayqaltas in the Savitsky Museum, or 32%, are of thitype. Of the 21 examples, 19 are made from q•z•l kiymeshek  fragments,

is from a jen'se and another is from a jen'ush.

It seems that a different social tradition may have come into play with the

examples. It is unlikely that a young bride-to-be would give her fiancé a te

bag made from a piece of an old woman’s garment such as an aq jegde.

know that when a woman died her clothing was sometimes cut up and

pieces were given to relatives as a keepsake. If she had lived to a great a

or had had many children it was considered especially lucky to have suchtoken. Perhaps tea bags were made from some of these pieces as a

memento or perhaps they are another illustration of Karakalpak thrift,

ensuring that every scrap of old embroidery was recycled in an acceptab

form.

However not every bag of this type was made from recycled embroidery.

are aware of a couple of exceptions. One example in our own collection h

been specifically made from scratch with a central field of ush•ga 

embroidered in chain-stitch. The field appears to be like a "sampler" for a

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orta qara. It is clear from the execution of the corner pattern that this has

been conceived as a piece in its own right. The shat•rash bo'z  lining is ag

clearly visible and the top third of the bag has been lined with a nice strip

silk ikat in harmonious colours.

A rare chain-stitch shayqal ta  that does not include any recycled

embroidery. The Richardson Collection.

Unfortunately in recent years unscrupulous local Karakalpak dealers have

begun making up new shayqaltas from embroidery fragments to sell as

souvenirs to unsuspecting tourists.

Other Types

 A few shayqaltas do not conform to any of the above three categories. A

small number occur with a plain central field, devoid of embroidery. One

beautiful example made from a rectangle of green velvet is on display at

Moscow State Museum of Oriental Art. The Savitsky Museum has anothe

made from Bukharan padshai  (half silk, half cotton) ikat.

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A simple shayqal ta  with a central ikat field. Savitsky museum, No'kis

One very rare type is a rounded bag with a central field of qara or q•z•l

ush•ga embroidered with mu'yiz  (horn) motifs in chain-stitch. In one exam

the black field is surrounded by a red border:

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A rare round-shaped shayqal ta  with mu'y iz  and sh iy law•sh  motifs. The

Richardson Collection.

 A second example from the Savitsky Museum has a red field with a narro

border of black.

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A rare round-shaped shayqal ta  with similar motifs and a fine edging o

patterned jiyek .

Image courtesy of the Savitsky State Museum of Art, No'kis.

Other Small Bags

Pul qalta 

The Karakalpak pul qalta or money bag is a mystery. Anna Morozova not

that there were two types of festive bags – a pul qalta for money and a

shayqalta for tea. Both were an obligatory part of male costume in the rur

areas and both were usually embroidered by girls to present to their

husband after the first night of marriage. However we have never seen su

an item and no examples exist in the Savitsky Museum

Tar• qal ta 

 Another rare item was a small millet bag or tar• qalta for holding snacks o

millet or ground millet mixed with butter and sugar, which were consumed

an accompaniment to tea. According to the curators at the Regional Stud

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Museum in No'kis these small bags were made from the skin of a small

mammal, such as a hare. However the original inventory card of an exam

kept in Tashkent (see below) records that it was made from the skin of an

unborn goat. They were decorated with a band of embroidery around the

neck and with clusters of tassels suspended from the ends of the short le

Some had a cord and tassels attached to the top, just like a shayqalta.

Tar• qal ta  with green and purple qos t ig is  or double-stitch embroidery. T

Richardson Collection.

One example is displayed at the Regional Studies Museum in No'kis whe

it is referred to as a shanash, which simply means a small bag. A 2004

museum brochure refers to the same item as "a bag for crumbly things":

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Tar• qal ta .

Image courtesy of the Regional Studies Museum, No'kis.

 A second example has been on display at the Islam Khoja Medressa in th

Ichan qala in Khiva.

Two others are held by the Samarkand State Museum, which attributes

them as early 20th century choi-kaltas from Khiva. The embroidery on the

examples appears to be Turkmen.

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Tar• qal ta -like bags from Samarkand Museum.

 Another simpler example, inventory number 1304 1-128, listed as a "calf

skin bag with embroidered top" appears in the State Museum of History in

Tashkent. Its record card describes it as a shayqalta, collected in 1946 fro

No'kis and Sh•mbay, and made from the skin of an unborn goat. The

inventory number and date suggest it was collected in Karakalpakstan by

Mirgiyazova.

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Tar• qal ta  collected from No'kis/Sh•mbay in 1946 with a solaq  motif.

Image courtesy of the Uzbek State Museum of History, Tashkent.

Some of these bags were owned by Karakalpak people, but the embroide

style is not typically Karakalpak and it is possible that they were made by

neighbouring tribes like the Turkmen or Khivans.

Temeki qalta 

We have not yet seen a Karakalpak tobacco bag. Xojamet Esbergenov

noted that the Khorezm Expedition acquired one example in 1973, which

was made of calf skin. The original owner claimed at the time that it had

been made five generations ago.

Sh•n•qap 

 A sh•n•qap is a leather case for transporting and protecting one or more

ceramic tea cups. It has a semi-spherical lid which is fastened to the body

the case with narrow straps. Such cases were often decorated with copp

wire and tassels made from thin strips of leather, while others were

embroidered. Xojamet Esbergenov claimed that they were one of the item

found on a man’s waist-belt. However they are quite heavy and bulky itemand were more likely to be attached to a horse’s saddle than to a waist be

Mirror Bags

The final small bag found among the Karakalpaks is the mirror bag.

However since this is an item for women rather than men it is covered un

Female rather than Male Costume.

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Historical Background

Early nomads wore an open tunic fastened around the waist with a belt.

 Anything they wished to carry had to be suspended from their belt or carr

on their horse. For example, depictions of Massagetae warriors on the

 Apadana at Persepolis (dating from the 5th century BC) show them wearnarrow belts with holders for their short akinakes swords suspended from

pendant. Golden vessels dating from the 4th century BC recovered from

kurgans north of the Black Sea show that the Scythians wore similar belts

from which they suspended a gorytus, or bow case and quiver. Actual be

ranging in width from 2.7 to 4.5cm were excavated from the Pazyryk tom

in the Altai, recently dated by dendrochronology to the 3rd and 4th centur

BC. They were decorated with sinew and had pendant straps for holding

quiver, dagger, or short sword. Some had silver or bronze plates. Leathe

purses and pouches were also found in some of the kurgans, one pouch

being found inside a small leather saddle bag. A very refined small leathepouch with a flap was discovered among some torn clothing. The flap wa

decorated with leopard’s fur and trimmed with a border of red felt.

Belt buckles have been recovered in extensive numbers from kurgans

across western Central Asia, indicating that many pastoral nomads wore

belts with buckles at the start of the Kushan era. Excavations of

contemporary Hsiung-nu kurgans in northern Mongolia show that the ear

Huns also wore belts decorated with buckles and plates. The belt was an

important indicator of status among many of the cattle-breeding nomads Eurasia.

Sogdian murals show that by the end of the 5th century AD aristocratic m

were wearing belts of two types: sashes of cloth knotted at the front and

leather belts decorated with metal plates fastened at the side. However a

the establishment of Turkic political domination in the middle of the 6th

century, a new fashion appeared in which belts were decorated with rows

round and/or semicircular plaques. The belts also had short pendant stra

for fastening different accessories. Such Turkic types of belt were not ofte

depicted in Sogdian art but from the frequent archaeological finds of suchbelt plates we can assume that the distribution of such belts was common

 As the Turks increasingly settled across Central Asia they integrated with

indigenous populations and influenced their cultures.

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Alabaster ossuary from Toq qala  in the Aral delta, late 7th or early 8t

century AD, showing Turkic tunics with lapels and belts.

Courtesy of the Savitsky Museum of Art, No'kis.

Belts remained an important status symbol under the Mongols. The Italia

Franciscan Giovanni del Pian di Carpini attended the coronation of Güyü

1246 and observed that among the many gifts bestowed by the foreign

envoys there were "girdles of silk threaded with gold". Known by the

Mongolians as altan büse, these golden belts were routinely given to

members of the Mongol court. According to Rashid ad-Din, the Il-Khan

Ghazan bestowed "fifty bejewelled belts and three hundred gold belts" on

his retainers. Meanwhile Friar Odoricus of Pordenone who travelled to the

Yuan court in Beijing in the 1320s noted that the Khan's courtiers "are gir

with golden girdles of halfe a foote broad". Many fine gold and silver buck

and belt plates have been recovered from excavations across the former

territories of the Golden Horde. Illustrations of Mongols in Persian miniatu

and from ancient manuscripts of Rashid ad-Din show belts decorated wit

metal plates and with pendants supporting swords or quivers. A few show

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belts supporting small, possibly leather, pouches. Of course none of thes

references relate to ordinary nomads or their local tribal leaders.

A belted Bahram Gur with purse, fighting a wolf, Mongol Iran (possibl

Tabriz), 1330s.

From the Shahnama  or Book of Kings, Harvard University Art Museum

Cambridge, Mass.

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Mongol mounted archer with belt and purse by Mohammed ibnMahmudshah al-Khayyam, Iran, 15th century.

From the Diez Albums, Staatsbibliothek, Berlin.

The first reference to Karakalpak costume was recorded in 1740 by Ivan

Muravin, the surveyor of Lieutenant Gladyshev's expedition to Khiva and

 Aral region. Muravin noted that in general the costume of the Lower

Karakalpaks, the Qazaqs of the Lesser Horde, the Aral Uzbeks, and the

Khivan Uzbeks was all very similar.

Regarding the Qazaqs he recorded:

"they gird themselves with belts cut from red leather, or

whatever is available, the width is two vershok  [equivalent to

9cm] or smaller; and on those belts are fixed metal plates, and

to the plates were fastened leather bags for storing bullets and

gunpowder, and on other plates only a small strap and a big bag

in which they keep flint with a steel and other necessities: they

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call this an uzbelik ; and when they are not on ceremony they

wear a simpler one [belt]."

The term uzbelik  is not precisely defined but seems to refer to the whole

assembly. Regarding the Karakalpaks, Muravin simply noted that they wo

the same dress as the Qazaqs, although they did not have belts made of

leather other than for their tribal nobles.

Such belts with pouches must have been widespread across Central Asia

In September 1770 Johann Peter Falk, Johann Georgi, and Christoph

Bardanes visited the temporary camp of Sultan Nur Ali, the grandson of t

Khan of the Lesser Horde Abul Khayr. In his descriptions of the Qazaqs,

published seven years later, he noted that several of them wore a belt to

which was always attached a sabre, a tobacco purse, a pipe, a lighter, an

knife.

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Qazaq man with leather belt and pendants holding a knife sheath, leat

pouch, and container.

From Gustav-Fedor Pauli's "Descr ipt ion ethnographique des p euples de la

Russie, tom 1 ", Saint Petersburg, 1862.

In 1819 Captain Nikolay Muravyov recorded that the Khivans were very

expert at making up silk waist girdles. Meanwhile Khivan traders were

importing silk waistbands from Bukhara.

 Arminius Vambery, describing the dress of the Central Asian male in his

"Sketches of Central Asia" published in 1868 wrote that:

"Among the men, various objects of ornament are seen, thosewhich hang from the Koshbag , such as good knives with silver

or other ornamented handles, gold embroidered bags for tea,

pepper ans salt; ... "

The American Eugene Schuyler, travelling in Turkestan in 1876 observed

that:

"The usual girdle is a large handkerchief or a small shawl; at

times a long scarf wound several times tightly round the waist ...

From the girdle hang the accessory knives and several small

bags and pouches, often prettily embroidered, for combs,

money, &c… …tobacco, if the user can afford it, is carried in a

small bottle of Chinese jade or nephrite, but more usually in a

very small gourd fitted with a stopper".

Henry Lansdell writing in 1882 described a similar belt worn by the Qazaq

"[He] is proudest of his girdle, often richly covered with silver,

and from which hang bags, and wallets for money, powder,bullets, knife, and tinder box, or flint and steel, the whole

apparatus being called kalta".

Similarly the Danish explorer Ole Olufen wrote:

"The Bokharan man often carries a real arsenal of different

objects suspended by a leather strap round his waist under his

lungi , such as purses for tobacco, money, the indispensable

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razor for shaving his head, and the nomads especially are

always furnished with tinder-box, awls, hammer, powder, shot-

bags, whetstone etc."

The Europeans and Russians who visited the Aral delta shortly after the

Russian conquest of Khiva in 1873 left us only glimpses of Karakalpak dr

at that time. For example Nikolai Karazin visited a small aw•l  in the northe

delta along the road from Qusxanataw elevation to Sh•mbay.

"But here the inhabitants of the village dared to approach us.

There were eight men; only two of them were in khalats, the rest

of them were in the long shirts of rough white cotton fabric;

these shirts were not belted and they delineated the thin, bony

body ... They were all in the inevitable huge black caps;"

Our best understanding of Karakalpak waist belts towards the end of the

19th century comes from surveys of elderly people conducted by Russian

and Karakalpak ethnographers in the 1940s. Xojamet Esbergenov hassummarized the results, reporting that men wore either a knotted sash,

called a belbew , made from a cloth or kerchief, or a narrow leather belt

called a qay•s. A wealthy man or a bridegroom might wear a belbew  mad

from a tu'rme or ma'deli  woven in a Khivan silk-weaving workshop. High-

status belts could be woven from cotton, silk, or wool ( pota belbew ), mad

from hard leather (ka'ma'r belbew ) or from soft leather (degment belbew )

These were generally embellished with ornamented metal plates and line

with bo'z .

One type of qay•s was made with leather pendants for suspending

attachments. They were worn by working men, not for status or for

festivities. The accessories could be in the form of specialist hunting

equipment such as an oq-shontay  or pistol and bullet case, a cap for a

sparrow hawk, or a flint with a fire-steel. Alternatively they could be every

items such as a q•nap or sheath for a knife, a shaqsha or horn tobacco b

a temeki qalta or tobacco bag, and a shayqalta or tea bag. The general

impression is that such leather belts were more common among the

nomadic Qazaqs than the more settled Karakalpaks.

The most frequent accessory for a Karakalpak man was undoubtedly his

shayqalta. The Karakalpak scholar Ag’•nbay Allamuratov researched

Karakalpak embroidery among local people in the 1970s and concluded t

the shayqalta had once been a very common item on men’s waist-belts.

Karakalpak men carried tea and sugar with them, which they then presen

to their hosts when visiting their houses. In the first decades of the 20th

century they were embroidered by girls before their marriage as a love to

for their prospective husbands.

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Karakalpak man wearing a ma'deli belbew .

From Aleksandr Melkov's "Album", photographed in 1928.

Courtesy of the Karakalpak branch of the Uzbek Academy of Science

No'kis.

Photographs taken by Aleksandr Melkov in 1928-29 and by Ella Maillart i

1933 support some of these conclusions. In these photos the majority of

men with belts were using a knotted kerchief or cloth and the others were

using narrow leather belts and buckles. None of the pictures show any itesuspended from these belts. Although Melkov did not photograph the

shayqalta in use he did capture the image of one cross-stitch shayqalta in

the kerege ko'z  pattern on the background of a shiy  mat:

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Black and white photograph of a kerege ko'z shayqalta  in cross-stitch

From Aleksandr Melkov's "Album", photographed in 1928.

Courtesy of the Karakalpak branch of the Uzbek Academy of Science

No'kis.

 Anna Morozova believed that the wearing of ka'ma'r  leather belts with me

buckles had died out by the 1920s. From our own records we know that

shayqaltas were still being made during the 1920s, but it seems that by th

they were no longer a practical item. They were not only made by a youn

prospective bride for her groom but were also frequently made as genera

gifts for men.

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Illustration of a shayqal ta  made from a chain-stitch q•z•l k iymes hek .

Collected by ethnographers from the Khorezm Expedition from Qarao'z

region in 1948.

By the 1930s the Karakalpaks were increasingly coming under Russian

influence, abandoning their traditional customs and culture. When Tatyan

Zhdanko and her team of ethnographers arrived to study Karakalpak life

the end of the Great Patriotic War they found that shayqaltas were no lon

made, although many families still kept them as mementoes of the past.

Pronunciation of Karakalpak Terms

To listen to a Karakalpak pronounce any of the following words just click

the one you wish to hear. Please note that the dotless letter 'i' (•) is

pronounced 'uh'.

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ayd•ll• orta qara qos tigis sh•r•s tigis

bo'z pul qaltaqum•r•sqa 

bel shiylaw•sh

ilme qara ush•ga  shanash solaq

•rg'aq qa'w•p tigis shat•rash tar• qalta

 jiyek q•z•l ush•ga shayan quyr•qtemeki 

qalta 

kerege ko'z 

nag'•s qoral• gu'l shayqalta teris qay•w

mu'yiz qos mu'yiz sh•n•qap  

References

 Allamuratov, A., Karakalpak People's Embroidery [in Russian], No'kis, 19

 Allsen, T. T., Commodity and exchange in the Mongol empire, Cambridge

University Press, Cambridge, 1997.

 Andrianov, B. V., and Melkov, A. S., Forms of Karakalpak National

Ornament [in Russian], Archaeological and Ethnographical Works of theKhorezm Expedition, Volume 3, Materials and Research on Karakalpak

Ethnography, page 411 onwards, Academy of Sciences of the USSR,

Moscow, 1958.

 Antipina, K. I., Special Material Culture and Applied Arts of the Southern

Kyrgyz [in Russian], Published by the Academy of Sciences of the Kyrgyz

SSR, Frunze, 1962.

Collingwood, P., The Techniques of Tablet Weaving, Robin & Russ

Handweaving, Inc., Oregon, 2002.

Dawson, C., The Mongol Mission, Sheed and Ward, London, 1955.

Georgi, J. G., A Description of All the Nationalities that Inhabit the Russia

State [in Russian], Volume 2, Saint Petersburg, 1776 to 1777.

Gladyshev, D. V., and Muravin, I., Journey from Orsk to Khiva and back,

completed in 1740-1741 by Lieutenant Gladyshev and Geodesist Muravin

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[in Russian], Published by Khanykov, Saint Petersburg, 1851.

Lansdell, H., Russian Central Asia, Houghton, Mifflin and Co., Boston, 18

Maillart, E., Collection of Photographic Negatives, Elysée Photo Museum

Lausanne, Switzerland.

Mirsadiyeva, L., Maverannahr Suzanis, in A World of Oriental Carpets an

Textiles, Published by the ICOC, Washington, 2003.

Morozova, A. S., The Domestic Cultural Life of the Karakalpaks at the

beginning of the twentieth century [in Russian], Doctoral Thesis, Departm

of History, Academy of Sciences of the Uzbek SSR, Tashkent, 1954.

Olufsen, O., The Emir of Bukhara and His Country, William Heinemann,

London, 1911.

Rudenko, S. I., Frozen Tombs of Siberia, J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd., London

1970.

Rusyaykina, S. P., Museum Funds as a Source for the Atlas of Central A

[in Russian], pages 36 to 85, Materials on the Historical-Ethnographic Atl

of Central Asia and Kazakhstan, edited by Zhdanko, Moscow-Leningrad,

1961.

Savitsky, I. V., Carving on Wood, Applied Arts of the Karakalpak People [

Russian], Published by "Science", Tashkent, 1965.

Savitsky, I. V., State Museum of Art of the Karakalpak ASSR, album [inRussian]. Moscow, 1976.

Schuyler, E., Turkestan, Notes of a Journey in Russian Turkestan, Khoka

Bukhara and Kuldja, Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, London

1876.

Vambery, A., Sketches of Central Asia, Wm. H. Allen & Co., London, 186

Yatsenko, S A., The Late Sogdian Costume (the 5th to the 8th century AD

Webfestschrift Marshak •r•n ud An•r•n, Studies presented to Boris IlichMarshak on the occasion of his 70th Birthday, edited by Compareti, Raffe

and Scarcia, Libreria Editrice Cafoscarina, Venice, 2006.

Zhdanko, T. A., and Esbergenov, X., Ethnography of the Karakalpaks [in

Russian], Fan Publishing, No'kis, 1980.

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Visit our sister site www.qaraqalpaq.com, which uses the correct

transliteration, Qaraqalpaq, rather than the Russian transliteration,

Karakalpak.

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