The history of Turkmen costume from ancient times to the present day reflects aesthetic views, the spirit of the times and way of life: each new generation of Turkmen introduced features specific to their era into the folk costume. Turkmen craftswomen created original fabrics that met national tastes and traditional needs. Silk fabric “keteni”, the most common and popular among the people, has various shades of red, green, yellow, and purple. Currently, beautiful women’s dresses are made from keteni.

Turkmen carpets are a global brand. It is long-pile woolen carpets with a dark red background, woven by hand, that are the longed-for dream of collectors and connoisseurs in many countries. There is a beautiful legend according to which Oguz Khan (the father of all Turkmens) encrypted his covenants and left them to his sons, with the ornaments of traditional gels. In ancient times, each Turkmen tribe had its own carpet gel. And today the carpet is so sacred that even the flag of the state carries its traditional patterns. Needless to say, a real Turkmen carpet is a work of art and costs a lot of money, but if you are ready for such a profitable investment, you will find valuable pieces in markets and in specialized stores.

Dutar, a plucked musical instrument that accompanied the Turkmen both during the hard times of war and during everyday life. The tool, at first glance, is extremely simple. And even primitive. However, this is a first and superficial impression.

Dutar is an integral part of the centuries-old musical culture of the Turkmen people. Not a single celebration – be it a wedding or a public holiday – is complete without performances by folk performers – bakhshi. In their hands, the dutar can both laugh and cry, conveying all shades of feelings, making enchanted listeners experience the happiness and tragedies of the heroes of ancient destans, and think about the depth of thoughts of outstanding Turkmen poets.

In all centuries, bakhshis enjoyed honor and respect among the people. Their names became surrounded by legends. The bakhshis themselves treated their dutar with the greatest care and reverence. Dutar was cherished like the apple of one’s eye, kept in special cases made of soft material and never lent to anyone.

It happened that the dutar acted not only as a musical instrument, but also served as a conductor of peace between warring parties. In Turkmenistan they know the true incident that happened to the famous dutarist Shukur-bakhshi. An unsurpassed musician, with his skill of playing the dutar, stopped the impending bloody battle with the soldiers of a neighboring country.

The well-deserved glory of bakhshis can rightfully be shared by the masters of making dutars – mouths. They were no less respected, their work was highly valued – for a good dutar they were given a thoroughbred horse. The craft of dutar masters was passed down from generation to generation. And today bakhshis can name the names of the masters who lived and made beautiful instruments a hundred or more years ago.

In principle, a dutar can be made from any wood, but its service life and sound quality will be completely different. To make a good dutar, you need, first of all, good material. The mulberry tree is best suited for this. The dutar produced from it is light, durable with a beautiful texture and excellent resonant abilities. No other tree produces such a rich, unique sound. In this case, his age is of great importance. The mulberry tree must be at least fifty years old. A tree, like a person, grows wiser over the years, becomes stronger, more beautiful, more noble.

It would seem that all dutars are similar to each other, like twins. But this is only to the unenlightened eye. A professional will recognize his instrument from thousands of similar ones, because each mouth has its own handwriting. Turkmen craftsmen never put a personal mark or other distinctive sign on their products. For what? If by the sound of the instrument a bakhshi can easily determine who created the dutar.