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Pamiri socks (pamiri jurab)

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Pamiri socks (pamiri jurab)

The fame of the Pamir Jurabs extends beyond the borders of Badakhshan and Tajikistan entirely. No country in the world can boast anything like that. There are only a few areas of Afghanistan that can be compared in some ways with the Pamiri Jurabs. However, back in the 19th century, these areas formed a single territory until the British and Russians agreed on the division of Badakhshan.

The main distinguishing feature of the Pamiri Jurabs is the colorful knitting with many symbols. The ornament retains the symbolism of the ancient Aryans, which consists of a cross, the sun and even a swastika, which the peoples of the Pamirs called "Gardunai Khurshed." Now, after its use by the fascists, the swastika arouses hostility, and before it was widely known that this symbol was used by the peoples belonging to the Indo-European branch. The swastika is also used by Pamiri craftswomen. In the Aryan swastika, as it were, the four primary elements of nature are crossed - fire, air, earth and water.

When the World War II began, the swastika was removed from the ornament used in the Pamiri Jurabs. Even law enforcement agencies of the Republic of Tajikistan closely watched this. Women of the Pamirs did not have the right to reproduce the symbolism of fascism on those products that they produced for many years in a row. During the war periods, thousands of pairs of the Pamir Jurabs were sent to the front for the Soviet Union soldiers. Many soldiers of the Soviet army had been saved from frostbite and severe frosts.

The masters of the Pamirs used not only Aryan symbols, but also their personal observations. For example, they say that on jurabs there are outlines of huge and expressive cow eyes. When the craftswomen cooked their food, they looked at the flames in the oven and invented yet another drawing, representing the fire of the flame. Symbols appeared due to water in the river, animals, insects. There are even separate names for each such drawing. A light is alovak, a scorpion is kazhdumak, eyes, if you translate the word into a Shugnan dialect, means siftsak, the peacock feathers in the Pamirs are called paritovus, and the chicken is called chahak.

The knitting needles used to knit jurabs are made from white willow and timber branches, which are collected in rocky shrubs growing in the Pamir mountains. For jurabs, goat and lamb wool, processed according to a special technique, are used. The secret of the methods of processing wool, dyeing and making yarn is kept by hereditary knitters and inherited by female continuers. In the Pamirs, it is especially important to take care of cattle that provide wool for jurabs. It is often washed, and especially the content of wool is monitored. Thanks to this, it turns out such a silky, soft, strong and durable coat.

Real jurabs can be black, red, green, yellow and purple. Since ancient times, natural coloring has helped the Pamirs to get this set of colors. For the manufacture of paints, plant henna, hazel bark, and other Pamir plants were used.

One crochet is used for knitting jurabs, they are knitted very quickly. It turns out a weak and long loop, but the density of the main fabric remains. Jurabs are usually worn for many years, they are very warm and practically do not rub. In the Pamirs, these qualities are very important, there the period of colds lasts a very long time, and in the summertime in the evening and morning it is pretty cool.

Capital shops sell jurabs as souvenirs. But these shop jurabs are not much similar to Pamir ones. The most beautiful jurabes knit women living in the valley of the river Bartang. They never repeat their patterns. In these jurabs, ornaments and colors are very harmoniously interwoven. Many drawings have a thousand-year history.


Posted on: July 6, 2022, 7:12 a.m. by Admin


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