The Legendary Story of the Ancient Carpet in Xinjiang Sampul
摘要
In 2007, while searching for jade, people accidentally unearthed several knotted pile carpets in an ancient riverbed in Sampul Township, Luopu County, Xinjiang. Qi Xiaoshan provided a detailed report on the discovery: “These five knotted pile carpets were unearthed in a gobi ravine southeast of Bashbeiz Village, at the main sluice gate in Sampul Township, Luopu County, 700 meters in a straight line from Bashbeiz Village. The geographical coordinates are 36°53′10″ N latitude and 79°57′02″E longitude, at an altitude of 1522 meters. The carpets were buried in a rectangular pit lined with stones. Among these five knotted pile carpets, two are rectangular, and three are square”. When first unearthed, the colors of the carpets were incredibly bright, making it hard to believe they were from ancient times. One of the square carpets has Khotanese written in the Brahmi script, including the word spāvata- “Sapo” (leader), using an archaic spelling form. Based on this, it is determined that these carpets were woven between the fifth and seventh centuries because the ancient Khotan only began using Brahmi script in the fifth century, and by the eighth century, the simplified form spta-was commonly used. Three of the knotted pile carpets are nearly identical in pattern, featuring the names of patrons, which I have previously interpreted in an earlier published article. This article focuses on interpreting the patterns of the two rectangular carpets. For convenience, the carpet with more figures is referred to as Carpet No.1 (Qi’s code 08LPSB1), and the one with fewer figures is referred to as Carpet No.2 (Qi’s code 08LPSB2), as shown in the following figures.