Lao Magic Carpets

Lao Magic Carpets (www.magiclaocarpets.com) is owned and managed by Ismet from Turkmenistan.

Carpet-making is a very old craft with its roots in Central Asia. Nowadays, carpet-weaving is a big business on a huge commercial scale. Magic Lao Carpets was set up to introduce carpet-weaving in Laos, a country, which is well known for its colorful textile weaving tradition. Ancient Central Asian carpet-making traditions found their way to local Lao weavers, reviving the use of local Silk.

For the time being Lao Magic Carpets Handicrafts focuses on training the weavers, with a clear plan in mind to start village-based carpet production. When this idea will becomes a reality, carpet-making can become a source of good income for many communities and its people, especially for villagers, which most of them do have some spare time in-between their rice planting and harvesting cycles.

It was very interesting to observe the show room and the workshop. Ismet told me a lot about silk, the technique of weaving and knotting carpets, about Laos and its people - his own experience with them. He is a very interesting old man with a very unique life...