We have always seen many weaves from the Chahar Mahal region, in Persia, but Tachehs were not well-known among enthusiasts and even experts until recently, including the Iranians. Tachehs are durable and thick receptacles woven in the Chahar Mahal region in western Iran that villagers used to carry wheat, barley, and crops on horses and mules. Today, Tachehs are famous for having various knitting techniques in one textile and for featuring intriguing personal designs due to more freedom weavers had as they are woven for weavers’ own families.
It seems that the reason for this lack of knowledge on tachehs is their rarity in the last decades. Many villagers preferred to use plastic bags after their Tachehs were worn and store the woollen threads for floor coverings, which had a good market value. Nowadays, Tachehs may not be in active use but can be found in the corner of rural houses or stables. These weaves would have disappeared entirely if it weren’t for the villagers’ attitude to keep and reuse their unused household articles. These precious weaves, in which the extract of Bakhtiari carpets can be seen are very rare, making them highly collectible pieces and their value has increased.
In addition to this, there is a mysterious connection between the Tachehs, the prayer rug, and the shepherds’ salt bag – used by tribal nomads to carry rock salt and by shepherds to carry salt as a food supplement for their sheep and goats – as well as other evidence such as its relationship with local architecture that makes them extraordinary textiles.
Structure
Tacheh is a fairly large container, woven from a piece of fabric about 130×100 cm and has an area of 1.30SQM. Around a fifth of this area consists of pile weave; the rest is weft-faced plain weave or kilim section. In the kilim section, some Tachehs have weft-wrapped embellishments, and one can see other weaving structures. The warps of Tachehs are often of wool and sometimes of cotton. They were always woven in pairs and one piece. It resembles a small Kilim with two pile-weave, salt-bag-shaped sides at its two ends . For reasons of durability, the imprints on the two ends of Tachehs have a particular structure which, by virtue of the increase in the warps and the wrapping of extra wefts around them, makes the weave more firm. Tachehs are used the same way as the Juval (grain bag), primarily for storing and transporting.
Design and Patterns
In terms of novelty of patterns and designs, Chahar Mahal Bakhtiari is one of the richest centres of rug weaving in the country, so much so that this novelty can be felt from one village to the next, sometimes no more than a few kilometres apart.Â
Generally, the body of textiles from Bakhtiari must be examined in two separate categories: the first, the textiles of the Bakhtiari Lors, and the second, the products from Chahar Mahal. While these two groups are related tribally and ethnically, their lifestyles are different. Chahar Mahalis are villagers living a rural lifestyle, while the Bakhtiari Lors are nomadic people. The pieces they weave differ significantly from the Chahar Mahal weaves. Making of pile rugs among the Lor tribes is considerably less common than flat-weaves. The reverse holds true for the Chahar Mahalis. As far as patterns and designs are concerned, these two groups fall into separate categories. The patterns and designs of most of the Chahar Mahali textiles have their basis in soft lines, floral patterns, and motifs of the classical Persian rugs. On the other hand, the Lori textiles have preserved their tribal purity.
Making of numerous and various containers is a necessity for nomadic tribes, and the Lors are no exception. The several varieties of Khorjin, Khur, Mafrash, and salt bag, among others, are the handiwork of the nomadic Lors, in which the Chahar Mahalis have almost no part. The making of Tachehs, however, is exclusive to Chahar Mahalis. Neither the Bakhtiari Lors nor any of their neighbours have any role to play in this area. However, the Tachehs of Chahar Mahal, on the one hand, are influenced by the Chahar Mahal rugs, and on the other, to some extent exhibit features of Lori textiles.
The types of Tacheh design
The Tachehs of Chahar Mahal, despite their extensive variations in pattern and design, can be classified into three groups:
- Those related to the Gol Farang rugs of Chahar Mahal.
- Those inspired by Lori Gabbehs.
- Those created by a combination of the first two types.
Gol Farang is among the original and early motifs of Iran.  The Gol Farang motif consists of a rose in full bloom with its corolla. There is no end to the uses that Persian artists, among them the rug weavers of Chahar Mahal, have made of this pattern. Sometimes the flower alone is set in a frame, and the repetition of the frames produces a square grid pattern called “Qäb-e Aineh” or “mirror frame”. At other times, a bunch of these flowers is placed on a rug in place of a central medallion, which is then called a “Toranj-e Gol Farang” or “Gol Farang medallion”. From another perspective, Gol Farang design can be seen in the drawings on ceilings of aristocrats’ homes in various ways from the seventeenth century onward.
The second group of Tachehs’ patterns are derived from Bakhtiari Gabbehs – that are themselves an independent group of Gabbehs but have always been, perhaps unfairly, under the shadow of the Fars Gabbehs. Practically every pattern worked into the Bakhtiari Gabbehs also appears in the Tachehs of the Chahar Mahal. Among the more prevalent patterns reproduced in Tachehs, one must also name the Kheshti, square grid, checkered, multi-lozenge, pinstripe, Muharramat, herring-bone and plain field types.
The third group of Tachehs are created from a combination of the last two groups. In other words, they are an amalgam of various figures and floral designs in vogue in the Chahar Mahal rugs and Bakhtiari Gabbehs. The chief pattern for one of these subgroups is the rosette, which appears in some in the form of a single medallion and others in a group. Tachehs generally have a homogeneous background and a narrow border. Sometimes they have no border at all.
Symbolism and aesthetic value of Tachehs
Now that a general description of the Tacheh structure and design has been given, it is not important to examine the circumstances of the creation of Tachehs design and their aesthetic value. The object of this section principally is to explore that part of Tachehs that resemble a salt bag and consist of pile weave. Although this section comprises roughly one-fifth of any Tacheh, it is nonetheless the essential part – the heart and soul of the Tacheh.
There is a difference between Tachehs and other Bakhtiari containers – Khurs, Khorjins, and salt bags. The pile-weave portion of the Bakhtiari khorjins and salt bags is situated at the bottom of the container, the purpose being to prevent abrasion, for it is this very bottom section that touches the ground constantly, therefore experiencing greater wear. This explains why the pile-weave portion of these containers is woven thick. The reverse is true for Tachehs; the pile-weave portion comprises the body of the Tacheh and is its exterior, at its most visible when the Tacheh is full. It is not woven to prevent abrasion but is solely for show and beauty. Why this portion is woven in the shape of shepherds’ salt bags is a question that had remained ambiguous for years.
Actually, the pile-weave portion of Tachehs resembles a salt bag so closely that it is sometimes imagined that a pile-weave salt bag has been sewn over a piece of Kilim. Several views have been put forth concerning the circumstances of the appearance of this shape on rugs, including the ones dating back to the caveman era or ones related to the form of animals. All connote certain truths, But the shape of shepherds’ salt bags has a very close connection to prayer or Mihrab rugs. Particularly in tribal and rural rugs, especifically Baluchi prayer rugs.
The design of these rugs, similar to shepherds’ salt bags, is composed of two parts: the body and the neck, representing the body in prostration. The reason the form of prayer rugs has been chosen for shepherds’ salt bags is the reverence and sanctity attached to salt among Muslims, especially Iranians. The transfer of this form onto Tachehs is not unrelated to the relationship between bread and salt insofar as Tachehs served as repositories for wheat, barley, and flour – the raw material for bread.
The torso-shape appears in the mihrabs of mosques and other holy places and even on the illuminated pages of religious texts. In other words, wherever the presence of God or his bounties is felt. In short, it has become a “sacred symbol” and its presence on Tachehs is akin to a seal of sanctity. By equating these twin bounties of God, the Chahar Mahal custom of producing containers for the stuff of bread (flour and wheat) in the form of a salt container is ingenious enough to arouse wonder. Weaving large receptacles for grain and flour in the likeness of a salt bag might have translated inner beliefs into tangible reality directly, but it would not produce a practical or useful container.
Another factor that influenced the appearance of Tachehs was pigeon towers. The pigeon tower appears similar to the salt bag or the pile-weave portion of the Tachehs. These towers were made as nests for the wild pigeons, the intention was to use the manure from the birds for fertilizer. The ingenuity of the villagers created these towers to answer the need for manure in agriculture. In terms of proportion, they are closer to the Tachehs with the checkered pattern.
The pile-weave or salt-bag portion of every Tacheh has a field and border. This salt-bag-like “rug” rests on a coarsely woven Kilim background; that is, both have been woven into and blended in with each other. Unlike multicoloured pile-weaved portion of Tachehs, the backgrounds have earthen colours, and generally, undyed brown or beige wool is used in them. The blending of these two weaves and the contrast between their dyeing cannot be unintentional. Some of them remind one of a flower growing in the desert, while others evoke a glittering gemstone ring amid ashes.
Today, the use of Tachehs in interior design is mostly in the form of floor covers. When they are opened from one side, they transform into distinctive floor covers but there is no end to their use; They can be hung on walls as wall-arts or spread on tables as runners. What is important is that they are unique pieces of art, are durable, and bring blessings into our homes!
Reference:
The Tacheh of Chahar Mahal by Parviz Tanavoli
(This book is available for reading in dyad artisan store.)
