Vintage Chauk Dhurries
Under the British Raj, villages in the areas around Pakistan and Western India were divided up along irrigation canals. These irrigation canals, or “Chauks” were each given numbers and eventually the populations living around them adopted these names when referring to their villages.
The women in these villages spun their own cotton and wove smaller sized dhurries to fit on top of the cots, or charpoi, that they slept on. After years of weaving this size and type of dhurries they became known simply as “Chauk Dhurries”.
Ira and Sylvia visited Chauk 13 in 1975, where they worked with local women to weave a series of Chauk style indigo and white dhurries for export to the U.S. Market.