The factory (1)

Ouzbékistan, Samarcande, tapchane, tapchane, © L. Gigout, 2012
Vernissage dans une fabrique du village éponyme du pays.


Sunday, Nargiza drive me with her small car Chevrolet Spark in the eponymous village in the country located a few kilometers away in the south of Samarkand. We are going to visit a factory of tapshans. A worker is busy varnishing with an air gun table legs of solid wood with woodturning design. The compressor make a lot of noise. The boss says that he does not complain about business. It sells between ten and fifteen tapshans per month for 250 dollars apiece for a basic model. The legs are shaped by lathes the armrest bars and the outer parts of the frame carved with more or less sophisticated designs. They use walnut or sycamore for these pieces and fir or birch for the tray. The current size is two meters by three meters. One day is enough for four people to make a simple tapshan.
- There are also tapshans whose feet and frame are made of metal, said the boss. We do not manufacture them here. You have to go to the blacksmith.
- And what about the carpets and the cushions?
- We do not provide the accessories.

Because the plate of the tapshan should be covered with a carpet, if possible made locally. A normal tapshan is also equipped with thin mattresses called kurpachalar in uzbek and kurpachaho in tajik and with cushions (yostiq in uzbek and bolish in tajik, also sometimes the russian word padouchka). Hand-sewn, their velvety fabric is decorated with floral patterns. A coffee table called khantakhta (in uzbek and tajik) for receiving the food tray is disposed at the center.
- Khan for king and takhta for the wooden tray, says the artisan. Takhta, it is also how we call in Samarkand the zinc plate on which the washerwomen of dead men are washing the bodies before wrapping them in shrouds. It is only the rich people who can afford the coffee table in addition tapshan ! The poor people will content themselves with a tablecloth (dastarkhan).
- How long are manufactured the tapshans ?
- It has always been so.


Ouzbékistan, Samarcande, tapchane, tapchane, © L. Gigout, 2012
Ouzbékistan, Samarcande, tapchane, tapchane, © L. Gigout, 2012
Ouzbékistan, Samarcande, tapshan, tapchane, © L. Gigout, 2012
Ouzbékistan, Samarcande, tapshan, tapchane, © L. Gigout, 2012
Éléments de décoration.


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