Woven Gardens

In a wonderful combination of beauty, function and tradition, this episodes features the rugs of the Qashqa’i Nomads of Iran. The rugs are a perfect mirror of the nomadic life of this Iranian people. Wool is gathered from sheep, goats and camels & dyes are made from the juices of plants. But with Qashqa’i rugs, beauty is second to function. They offer protection from the frozen ground and provide a shield against the bitter winds. When a girl marries a man from another group, she weaves the patterns her husband expects to see on his rugs, but she also integrates the images from her own tradition, thus creating a new family design.