
Georgia's ethnic minority women keep ancient rugweaving art alive
KOSALARI, Georgia, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Since Zemfira Kajarova arrived in the hill village of Kosalari in southern Georgia as a newly wed almost 50 years ago, she has devoted herself to weaving the village's distinctive Persian-style woollen carpets.
The 65-year-old grandmother devotes hours each day to the painstaking work, sitting at the decades-old wooden loom in her living room, threading woollen yarn into thousands of individual knots.
'When I was 16, I got married and moved here," she said, adding that no one in her home village, about 40 km (25 miles) away, knew how to weave carpets.
After weaving, the carpets are carefully finished: shaved, beaten, and scorched with a gas burner, flaming off dust and loose ends.
For over a decade, Zemfira has been working with reWoven, a social enterprise initially started by a U.S. missionary, to find buyers willing to pay international prices for local rugs.
The group works with a network of weavers, all of them older women from Georgia's Muslim Azerbaijani ethnic minority.
Though influenced by Persian rugs, the Borchalo carpets produced by Zemfira and other local weavers are made of woollen yarn, rather than silk, and rely on bold, striking designs on a limited colour palette, instead of the floral motifs favoured in Iranian weaving.
'If we compare rugs to wine, then Iran is like France, and the Caucasus is like Italy,' said William Dunbar, a volunteer co-director at reWoven.
He said: 'Everyone knows about Iranian rugs and that still to this day is the global centre of handwoven rug production.'
'But the Caucasus is just as good, but a bit smaller and less famous.'
KEEPING THE CRAFT ALIVE
Under the Soviet Union, and under pressure from modern, mass-produced textiles, local rug making had largely died out, with only a handful of older women in remote villages keeping the craft alive.
Nowadays, the carpet weaving women are not only sustaining a local handicraft, but also providing for their families.
In Kosalari, only 60 km south of Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, but where ethnic Azerbaijanis make up close to the entire population, Zemfira and her colleagues are an economic lifeline for an otherwise isolated and impoverished community.
Though ethnic Azerbaijanis are Georgia's largest minority group, accounting for around 6.5% of the country's population, they are separated from Orthodox Christian Georgians by their Turkic language and mostly Shi'ite Islamic faith.
Concentrated in a string of mostly rural, homogeneous enclaves along Georgia's southern border, many do not speak Georgian, severely limiting their economic prospects.
In Kosalari, where the land is too dry to support large-scale agriculture and pastureland insufficient to keep animals, incomes are limited to the salaries of a handful of public sector workers and the remittances sent by locals working in countries like Russia, Ukraine and Greece.
That makes the women's work, which sees them net hundreds of dollars per carpet, vital to their villages' economic survival.
Among a younger generation that has received the Georgian-language education Zemfira never did, and which is more integrated into the country around them, carpet weaving holds only limited appeal as a profession.
'I really like weaving, and we need to keep this culture of carpet weaving going. Sadly, not many people want to weave,' said Zemfira.
'The young people don't want to, and there aren't many old people left.'
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Economist
10 hours ago
- Economist
A quiet night in LA
Photograph: Reuters Jun 11th 2025 ( published 4m ago) Sign up here to receive 'The US in brief' as a newsletter, each weekday, in your inbox.


Scottish Sun
12 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
Gold-laden ‘£16bn' ship ‘is FOUND': Sunken galleon discovered 10yrs ago is fabled holy grail of wrecks, scientists say
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) A CENTURIES old Spanish galleon stacked with a £16-billion treasure trove has finally been found, researchers have claimed. Known as the holy grail of shipwrecks, the San Jose was long believed to be lost beneath the waters of the Caribbean. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 6 Action off Cartagena, May 28, 1708 Painting by Samuel Scott Credit: Refer to Caption 6 A video released by the Colombian Presidency on June 6 2022, showing images of the wrecked Spanish galleon San Jose Credit: AFP 6 Coins that belong to the treasure of the Spanish galleon Credit: Reuters 6 After being sunk by the British more than three centuries ago, its treasures have gone untouched and undiscovered at the bottom of the sea. But academics in Colombia now believe that a wreckage found near Baru Island in 2015 is the long-lost galleon. An underwater drone mission from a decade ago captured images of the cargo scattered in and around the shipwreck. Among the items spotted were silver coins minted in 1707 in Lima, Peru and Chinese porcelain from the Kangxi period. There were also cannon inscriptions that dated to 1665. The academics said: "This body of evidence substantiates the identification of the wreck as the San José Galleon, a hypothesis that has been put forward since its initial discovery in 2015. "The finding of cobs created in 1707 at the Lima Mint points to a vessel navigating the Tierra Firme route in the early 18th century. "The San Jose Galleon is the only ship that matches these characteristics. "This find presents a rare opportunity to explore an underwater archaeological site and deepen our understanding of colonial maritime trade and routes." The San Jose was sunk by the Royal Navy back in 1708 during the War of the Spanish Succession. It was intercepted by a British squadron under Charles Wager, who would later serve as First Lord of the Admiralty. The vessel's powder magazines detonated during the attack, causing it to sink. Its treasure was being ferried from Peru to Spain to help fund the Spanish war effort - making the sinking of the San Jose a huge blow to Spain. The war would end with Britain getting control of Gibraltar, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. The combined treasure of gold, silver and precious stones is believed to be worth around £16 billion in today's prices, The Telegraph has reported. This new discovery is expected to further stoke a dispute over wreckage's legal ownership. The governments of Colombia, Spain and Peru all stake claims to the San Jose, as do indigenous communities and the descendants of the miners who dug up the treasure. Treasure-hunting firm Glocca Morra also claims it discovered the wreckage as long ago as 1981. Its new owners Sea Search Armada are adamant the vessel was found within a mile or two of its 1981 discovery. The firm is claiming £7.9 billion and is challenging a 2020 Colombian law that says everything on board is the government's property. 6 Crabs walk next to a cannon that belongs to the treasure of the Spanish galleon San Jose Credit: Reuters

Western Telegraph
13 hours ago
- Western Telegraph
Georgian former minister's Solva home is on the market
According to the listing, the Georgian-style property was constructed for the minister of the neighbouring chapel using Middle Mill granite, as noted in the local Pevsner Guide. It retains original period features, including stripped pine flooring and decorative cornicing, and has been 'sympathetically upgraded and refurbished over recent years.' The interior layout includes an entrance hall, two reception rooms, a dining room, and a kitchen that leads to a storage area and a downstairs WC. The living room (Image: West Wales Properties) Four bedrooms are located on the first floor, with the main bedroom served by an en-suite shower room. There is also a family bathroom. Sash windows are fitted throughout, and the property is heated by oil-fired central heating. Outside, the house has a walled garden laid to lawn, featuring a well and a patio seating area accessible from the kitchen. An enclosed courtyard at the front is described as 'a lovely place to sit of a morning'. One of the bedrooms (Image: West Wales Properties) High-speed fibre broadband is installed, which the listing says provides good broadband speed. The house is in the hamlet of Caerfarchell, a conservation area about two and a half miles from both St Davids and Solva. The area is close to the old St Davids Airfield, which is used for walking. The property is freehold and connected to mains drainage, electricity, and water. Council tax band is G.