- Collection type
- Object
- Description
- Roof boss cover for model nomadic tent [See 2009.150 .1-.31 for all parts of tent]. [FC 10/11/2009]
- Long description
- Roof boss cover for model nomadic tent. Square of white ?linen textile which has been edged with blue felt textile stitched to the white textile with purple cotton yarn. Four lengths of red ribbon, one on each corner have been stitched to the blue felt boarder on the square of textile. The lengths of ribbon are fraying and are approximately 1080 mm in length. On one side of the roof boss cover two narrow bands of blue felt have been added for decoration, 5 mm wide alongside the broader felted boarder. [See 2009.150 .1-.31 for all parts of tent]. [FC 10/11/2009]
- Geographical reference
- Date / Period
- Date made: By 1948
- Date collected
- 1948
- Acquisition information
- Donated: 28/10/2009
- Materials and processes
- Material Ribbon Textile, Material Cotton Seed Fibre Yarn Plant, Material Linen Flax Bast Fibre Textile Plant, Material Cotton Seed Fibre Textile Plant, Material Canvas Textile, Material Felt Wool Textile Animal, Process Stitched, Process Woven
- Dimensions
- Depth: max 22 mm, Width: max 257 mm, Length: max 257 mm
- Object numbers
- Accession number: 2009.150.12
- Research and responses
Clare Harris [Reader in visual Anthropology, Pitt Rivers Musem]: Although the object has been described by the donor as a yurt, technically speaking this is not correct as this is a Turkic term used in Central Asia and then exported to the West (hence commonly used). (See the Wikipedia entry for Yurt for more information on this.) Mongolians call the tent a gyer or ger and Tibetans call a white tent a gur. In fact there are many different terms for these portable dwellings in Tibetan - depending on their shape and colour. I suspect that the same will be true for Mongolia. The problem with the model we have been donated is that it was given to Arthur Hopkinson by a Mongolian-Tibetan trader and so could be either Mongolian or Tibetan. I don't know enough about the designs of these tents to be able to say which it is without doing some research. The other issue is that (if I remember correctly) it was presented to Hopkinson in India (probably Darjeeling or Kalimpong) and might have been made there. I am pretty sure that there was a Tibetan handicraft establishment in Kalimpong in the 1930s... The fabric used to make the internal fittings (eg bed covers) suggested to me that it might have been made in India. Monisha Ahmed has a lengthy discussion about the type of tents used by nomads in Ladakh and Western Tibet in her book "Living Fabric" (should be in the Balfour library). However, our model is not of this variety. [FC 12/11/2009]
2009.150.12
Roof boss cover for model nomadic tent [See 2009.150 .1-.31 for all parts of tent]. [FC 10/11/2009]
2009.150.12
Digital asset copyright: Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford
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