On the Embroidery Cloth Called Suzani in Central Asia: With Special Reference to Its Ai Palak Type

摘要

The embroidery cloth called suzani has been widely produced and used in Central Asia. Prepared by female member of a family for a girl's marriageable age, it originally constituted a crucial part of dowry in which a bride brought some ten pieces of suzani with her. The making process of a suzani work is unique: firstly, a rough sketch is drawn on a narrow cloth. Secondly, the design on the cloth is stitched with silk thread. Lastly, several pieces of embroidered cloth are sewed together into a single large work. This large suzani is used in various ways such as a wall-hanging, a prayer rug, and a table cloth. This paper is a preliminary report on ai palak or palak, one of the regional types of suzani centred at Tashkent and Pskent in Uzbekistan. In general, an ai palak cloth represents one or more than one red roundel motif. While smaller motifs show stars, larger ones indicate the moon and moonlight even though there are several similar motifs. In other words, ai palak represents the night sky in which the moon and stars are shining. In addition to the above report, the paper introduces recent circumstances of the suzani production both in handmade and machine-made industry.