Published by: THE WORLD UYGHUR NETWORK NEWS November 6, 1997

11/03/97, Reuters, By Jane Macartney

KHOTAN, China (Reuters) - Settling one's rear on the soft pile of a fabled carpet from Khotan has for centuries been a dream cherished by everyone from emperors to peasants throughout Central Asia and China.

Hundreds of families in Khotan, lying on the ancient Silk Road, still keep its great carpet-making tradition alive.

"Khotan's wool is very high quality, Khotan's designs are thousands of years old," said Daud Akhund, 60, whose family has for centuries woven carpets in this remote oasis town on the edge of China's western-most Taklamakan desert.

The first intrepid explorers of the Silk Road in the 19th century wrote of being invited by khans in the region to sit down on Khotan rugs to dine.

Marco Polo's rear almost certainly rested on one in the mid-13th century as he journeyed to the heart of fabled Cathay.

Antique carpets from Khotan, which lies some 950 km (570 miles) southwest of the Xinjiang regional capital of Urumqi, are now much prized by collectors.

Khotan's modern carpets carry a great cachet, commanding markets as far afield as Central Asia and the Middle East.

KEEPING IT IN THE FAMILY

In the Akhund family, daughter-in-law Nutsu Songhan, 20, is responsible for carpet weaving.

She works with two other girls at a hand-loom set up under a grape arbor in the courtyard of the family's mud-built home and usually completes one six-square-meter carpet in about a month.

A carpet can take a little longer in busy farming seasons.

In summer when the daylight hours are long, Songhan sits in front of her loom for up to 10 hours at a single stretch.

"This is a major part of the family income," she said, pausing to look away from a half-finished carpet of undyed beige and cream wool. She expects to sell it for 1,800 yuan ($216) -- or a profit of 1,000 yuan -- to one of the dealers who regularly call at the homes of Khotan's carpet-weaving families.

The large, geometric design of this carpet is one of Khotan's most famous and sells for as much as 2,500-3,500 yuan in the town bazaar.

Akhund said his family has woven nine carpets so far this year in a sideline business that has earned the household more than 8,000 yuan. The average income of a farmer in Xinjiang was just 1,290 yuan last year.

Khotan cotton farmer Mehmet Turakhun, 21, said the family's carpet weaving business had enabled them to raise capital to rent enough land to more than triple the size of their holding.

But it is not only farmers who can get rich from making carpets.

The industry is big business in Khotan.

CARPET MILLIONAIRES

Entrepreneur Abdul Aziz, 42, also from the Moslem Uighur ethnic minority that accounts for most of Khotan's population, oversees the production of up to 150 carpets a year at looms set up in workshops in the rear of his spacious home.

"Khotan's carpets are so famous because of the quality of the wool," Aziz said.

"The wool from our sheep is easy to dye and very elastic," he said, demonstrating by pushing his hand into the thick pile of the brightly colored carpet.

Aziz is the scion of an old Khotan merchant family who learnt the carpet trade during the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution. As ultra-leftist communists turned on their countrymen in a vicious wave of persecutions, his parents were vilified as "capitalist roaders" and he was banished to live with farmers in the countryside.

"I stopped being a farmer after I learnt how to make carpets because you can make more money," said Aziz, who has since become one of Khotan's first millionaires and among its wealthiest Uighur merchants.

The 20 weavers at the wooden hand-looms in his workshop turn out a kaleidoscope of beautifully designed carpets, including prayer rugs and the popular pomegranate pattern.

Most of his carpets are sold in China, although some are exported to neighboring Pakistan and a few to Central Asian states and Turkey.

PLANS TO EXPAND AMID TOUGH COMPETITION

Competit ion is fierce, but Aziz plans to expand and is applying for a bank loan to set up a 500-weaver factory despite the problems he encounters as a member of the Uighur minority in predominantly Han China.

"It is difficult for me to get a loan from the bank because the officials are Han (Chinese) and they don't know me," he said, adding that he might even set up a joint venture with capital from a Pakistani businessman.

Khotan's prized carpets can exact a heavy toll on their makers.

"Most people have to stop weaving when they are about 40 because their eyesight starts to fail," said Songhan.

But they can still pass on their skills to a new generation of carpet weavers.

Songhan weaves her carpet without need to refer to a pattern.

"I designed this carpet and the design is in my head," she said.

"We know these designs because we have been making them for thousands of years.