TORBA SARYK
Origin Turkmenistan
Period Late 19th century
Ancient Torba Saryk with the "shemle" gul design in which small polychrome hexagons are closely matched to each other in order to generate the illusion of a grid pattern. They often have long fringes on the underside.
This fine peat or shallow storage bag was woven by a woman of the Turkmen tribe Saryk. The Turkmen used bags of various sizes to carry their belongings when they moved with their flocks and then stored them inside the Yurt tent.
According to their intended use, they are indicated with different names: diz-peat is used to contain salt, flour or tea, chemche-peat for kitchen utensils, at-peat for horse feed, while duyup-peat, usually made with particular finesse, it contains gifts and delicacies to offer to guests.