San'at: Forgotten Tribe of Lakai

San’at magazine article (Academy of Arts of Uzbekistan, Issue 3, 2012) on the history and embroidery tradition of the Lakai tribe. The report states the Lakai were a numerous semi-nomadic Uzbek tribe who in the 19th century resided primarily in the Dushanbe and Kulyab provinces of the Bukhara Khanate and in parts of Afghanistan, and descended from the ancient Turkic population of the Asian steppes. It states that in the early 16th century the Lakai migrated with other Turkic and Turko-Mongol tribes led by Sheibani-khan from the Dashti-Kipchak steppes into Maverannahr, occupying pasture lands in southern Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and areas around Balkh and Kunduz in northern Afghanistan. The article states that in 1869 the Emir of Bukhara conducted a brutal military operation against the Lakai after they refused to pay tribute, crushing their leaders and capturing livestock; by 1889 the Lakai were forced to become sedentary and enter a political-military alliance with Bukhara. It states that in the early Soviet period the Lakai resisted but were defeated, with some families remaining in northern Afghanistan (Kunduz area) while the majority stayed on the northern shore of the Amu Darya, and today the Lakai of Tajikistan maintain their ethnic identity as part of the Uzbek people. The article states that Lakai embroidery production declined sharply after Sovietisation and collectivisation in the 1930s, and that from the mid-1970s Lakai textile reached Kabul and Istanbul markets. It describes types of embroidery including ilgich (tabaklau, torba, uuk kap), mapramach, oina-halta and segusha, noting the cult, protective and Tengrian-shamanic associations of the designs.