The Perpetual Picnic - The nomads black tents
by Jean - Paul Peters
When I was a little boy I was
allowed to build a tent in our garden with old pieces of cloth, rope and
sticks.
In the confinement of my tent an
imaginary world of freedom wandering around and discovering developed.
Maybe that is the reason why my imagination easily runs wild when
I hear about nomads.
In the Stone Age men made a very
important step when they gave up a migrant life of hunting, fishing and
gathering. By the Neolithic
Age most men had settled. They
built houses and grew corn themselves.
In some regions men began breeding cattle.
They did not grow more food for the animals but traveled with the
animals from one pasture to another.
As shepherds they always had to move to other regions with their
animals to find enough food. Therefore
their houses also had to be mobile.
The donkey as a pack animal was
domesticated early. The donkey also proved to be a good guide.
Otherwise donkeys were not very useful as they did not produce
anything useful such as wool for clothing or milk to make cheese or
yogurt. Nor is their meat
eaten. For these reasons
the nomads kept the number of the pack animals to a minimum. In this way the nomadic pattern which still exists today was
born.
During his wanderings the
shepherd only carries the strictest necessities.
The nomadic cycle starts in spring with a ‘transhumance’ to
the closest green meadows. The
entire family travels together for safety taking as much time as
required depending upon the weather, up to several months.
When they reach green meadows, a
camp of tents is built where the nomads live for several weeks until the
vegetation is consumed. From
there they move to higher regions where the snow has more recently
melted and the meadows are still green.
The same pattern occurs every year with the family groups always
returning to the same places not only for animals’ food but, more
importantly, for the wells of potable water.
During each move, the entire
inventory of the houses are transported so the families have all they
require. They keep these
items to the minimum. For
example, during the evening everyone finds comfort near to the fire, the
same fire which is used to cook all their meals.
Meals are not elaborate and not cooked in several pots, but only
ONE stew is cooked in ONE kettle. To
wander with chairs, tables and cupboards is not possible.
Everything needs to be light and mobile and if possible the
nomads carry things they can make themselves.
So we see that what seems so romantic on the outside is only a
pure necessity. The perpetual picnic consists only of hard facts.
Tables and chairs are replaced
by carpets and kilims, cupboards and wardrobes by all kinds of bags,
beds by thick carpets...and the house itself?
They also used to weave that themselves.
The black goat-hair tents, found
mostly in Turkey and the Middle East, creates an ideal living area.
Under the warm summer sun the
warm air can circulate and the tent gives cool shade in the inside.
In the rain the fibers of the
handspun goat wool swell and the tent is transformed to a waterproof
shelter.
The
nomads used to take their loom during their travels. Today they usually still carry their own loom but only to
weave carpets or kilims which they can sell during wintertime. Our
interest in carpets changed their live.
To make these tents true
professionalism is required as many very particular preparations are
necessary. Also the modern
economy changed the traditional ways.
The black tents are still woven in the traditional way today but
only by a small group of people who are working on them during the
entire year. They produce these tents not only for their own country,
Turkey, but also for the entire Middle East from a few small villages at
the feet of the Taurus Mountains, 50 km away from the provincial capital
Aydın.
In
the Başoluk and two other neighbouring villages in the county of
Nazilli, every house has a loom.
From
all over Turkey goat hair is sent to these villages. It first is washed and than spread on the roads to dry in the
sun, before the carding. Carding
is usually done today by machines.
The spinning is women’s work and is done in a very unusual way.
You can find a ‘spinning wheel’ near to every house.
The woman is bound to the wheel
with a rope around her waist. By
stepping backwards she turns the wheel.
The woman spins with both hands from the carded goat hair bound
in a ‘pack’ on her waist.
In each hand she spins a
separate yarn. When she
comes to the end of her path the two yarns are immediately twisted
together to one plied yarn, and put on the ground between two pickets to
form the warp needed.
Nowhere else have I seen such an inventive system of preparing
the thread and the warp at the same time.
To prepare the loom and to weave
the pieces to form the tents is men’s work.
They weave larger bands in a warp-faced plain weave to form the
tent. They add narrow bands
to fortify the structure. These
can have ‘design’ by using a combination of white and black colored
yarn in the warp.
In open spaces between the
village houses the tents will be assembled.
I agree, in this little village
in the mountains of Western Turkey,
I felt again like a little boy who loved to build tents and who
carried his blankets to sleep there.
When I would awake in my bed in the morning I could not remember
having moved. In our garden
we had no scorpions or snakes and I think, no I am sure, that I now
prefer my orthopedic mattress to the unsure life in a nomad tent.
And
the nomads? I am sure they
have no stress and they never heard of ‘de-hurry’.
I can understand their fierce self-assuredness and I daydream for
awhile during their hospitality.
Jean - Paul Peters and Ludwina Akbulut ( Dekorativ
Carpets and Kilims), Turkey, 20 June 2003
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