Auspicious Carpets: Tibetan Rugs and Textiles

"Auspicious Carpets: Tibetan Rugs and Textiles" by Dan Miller, is more than a book on carpets. With great pictures and interesting text it is as much an ethnography of the inhabitants of the Tibetan landscape.

Tibetan nomads move across the grassland with their animals and tents. The animals the nomads raise - sheep, goats and yaks - provide the wool and fiber that are the elemental elements used for Tibetan carpets and textiles. Although these nomads do not make knotted pile carpets they use them in their tents and as blankets and saddle carpets. These nomads do weave sheep and wool and yak hair into blankets, bags, and tent material and make ropes and other items for daily use.

Tibetan carpets are not mystical, but rather playful. In the Tibetan view they are more like auspicious companions, lighting up the day and the night with positive energy. They are auspicious carpets. Auspicious, however, does not mean sacred. Tibetan carpets with few exceptions are not intended for sacred use. 

Dan Miller, the editor of "Auspicious Carpets: Tibetan Rugs and Textiles" currently works for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in New Delhi, India. He has worked in Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, and Tibet. Dan Miller has used photography to document his work and journeys among nomads in the Himalaya, Tibetan Plateau, Mongolia and Central Asia.

Read more about "Auspicious Carpets: Tibetan Rugs and Textiles" (pdf)