Shawl "LOKAI" cotton-silk 135x135 on an green background

The Kungrats and the Lokais who lived in Central and Southern Tajikistan, in the south of Uzbekistan and the north of Afghanistan in the 19th-the beginning of the 20th century are considered to be the descendants of the most ancient Turkic part of the population of the Asian steppes. Artistic traditions as well as the way of life, customs and beliefs of the tribes whose life was closely related to the culture of the Great Steppe are very similar, which allowed to unite the elements of their embroidery in one scarf. 
Freedom-loving spirit of seminomadic tribes who fought for their political independence and tribal integrity first with the Emirate of Bukhara and then with the Soviet regime contributed to unique features of their applied art. The seeming primitiveness of the pattern hides true magic power and the mystery of images. 
The Lokais and the Kungrats embroideries are kept in many private collections. Scientists try to explain the sense of mysterious patterns, many of which haven’t been met anywhere before. 
Our scarf depicts two horses in festive head decorations and with at-torbas (special bags for hay put on the horse’s face in solemn occasions). 
The accessories of the dark horse are decorated with the Lokai embroidery containing vortex rosettes - the Lokais clearest symbol – traditional sign of the sun and the good, of perpetual motion. There is also a kuchkorak – a cross with a rhombus at the base and antlers on the cross sides. It relates to the idea of abundance, wealth and fertility. 
The accessories of the light horse are decorated with the Kungrat embroidery generally similar to the Lokai embroidery in style and theme but with plant motifs. 
Thus astral motifs were transformed by craftswomen in flower rosettes with multiple curvilinear shoots growing; the classical kuchkorak also acquired plant interpretation, where the rhombus was replaced by pluripetalous rosette and the antlers by profiled palmettes.