Unknown Lokay People

The Lokay people belong to one of the largest nomad Uzbek tribes. Until the beginning of the 20th century they resided in the southern parts of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan and in the north of Afghanistan. Cattle-breeding, horse-breeding and crafts were the major activities of the tribe. Traditional mode of life of the Lokay people did not differ much from that of other nomad tribes residing in Central Asia. Men were busy with cattle-breeding and horse-breeding and women were keeping the households and did different types of crafts. Yurt (nomads tent) was the traditional housing of the Lokay people. It was very similar to those that Kazakh and Kyrgyz people had. However, the decorations inside the Lokay yurt were different. The yurt was decorated by small embroidered pieces, carpets, felt and leather items. Embroidery items of the Lokay people were the most interesting among other crafts. A wide range of Lokay peoples views on religion and aesthetics can be traced in their embroidery. Nowadays, we do not have information about the modern Lokay embroidery and the latest samples are dated back to the end of 1960s and the beginning of 1970s.

At present we can find the embroidery pieces with elements of the Lokay patterns but they are very formalized and are being produced by craftswomen from Shakhrisabz, Kulyab, Gissar and kungrads of Surkhandarya. Unique samples of embroidery are mainly preserved in the private collections, large galleries in Europe and in the USA. A few samples are kept in Tashkent, Samarkand, Tajikistan museums and St. Petersburg in Russia.

The Lokay peoples embroidery can be easily classified because the majority of items were of a small size, they were utilized in the houses and used for decorating the yurt. It is well-known that embroidery was inevitable part of brides dowry: large items such as suzanni in Bukhara, Samarkand, Tashkent and Shakhrisabz, and smaller items in the nomad tribes. The Lokay peoples yurts were decorated by embroidered and woven items rich in ornaments: felt, carpets, small sacks (  "ilgichi") for wooden dishes, for mirrors ("oyna halta"), sacks for tea ("choy halta") etc.

A curtain ("eshik cholpinchak" ) was hung at the door. It looked like laced gauze made of silk with fringe, hanging tassels and silver decorations. The most widely spread and interesting samples of the Lokay embroidery were square and shiled-shaped and possessed a type of magic attraction of the pattern and colors. The patterns are very archaic and laconic and of extensive saturated colors. The Lokay embroidery can be divided into several types by their composition:

1 Medallion type large rosette of solar or zoomorphic motifs is in the centre with a number of smaller elements in the corners of the embroidery piece;

2.    Second  type    sharp division of the piece in four parts where cruciform and  hornlike elements are located;

3.   Third type  random disposition of zoomorphic, solar and vegetable motifs on the embroidery piece. The edges of the central field of the embroidery are framed with edging with geometric ornaments.

Lokay craftswomen used wool (often of red color) as a base for the embroidery and embroidered with red silk threads using chain-stitch ( "bosma"). Coloring of the Lokay embroidery is based on the contrast of extensive colors green, yellow, red, blue, etc.

While speaking about the Lokay embroidery ornaments and composition we start traveling to the world of archaism presented by a special system of signs and symbols that helped people since ancient times to express their own notions of the surrounding world. The vegetable and zoomorphic motifs, jewelry and household items, birth signs and "tamga" related to ethnic history of the Lokay people constitute the base of the Lokay embroidery.

The most spread embroidery ornaments are symbolic-sign motifs, vegetable and very formalized zoomorphic and anthropomorphic motifs.

Symbolic-sign motifs constitute one of the major groups of ornaments in the Lokay embroidery. Solar and astral motifs are the most spread signs and symbols. They characterize the 1st type of the embroidery items. A circle rosette depicting the sun or the moon is concentrated in the center of embroidery. It is well-known that the circle was a solar symbol in the arts of nomadic tribes in Central Asia. Worshiping the heavenly bodies (mostly the Sun) was included in the system of ancient pre-Islamic mythological and religious view of people in Central Asia and that trait was transformed into the Lokay embroidery.

One more type of solar symbol  is whirling rosette or rotator,  consisting of long rays twisted in radial direction in the circle. Whirling rosette is a traditional symbol of sun with its rays and the circle ex-presses the idea of unity and completeness in persons consciousness