Tibetan Tiger Rugs — Hand-Knotted Luxury Area Rugs

Tibetan tiger rugs — where the design comes from

The tiger rug is one of the few genuinely old Tibetan designs, and it was never a decorative pattern to begin with. These pieces were woven as khaden — small mats, roughly 90 × 180 cm, used for sitting and sleeping. Tiger imagery belonged to tantric practice: the pelt was associated with fearlessness and with the taming of the mind, and mats of this kind were made for lamas and for meditation.

There are three basic treatments, and you will see all of them in this collection. The flayed skin type shows the whole pelt spread flat, sometimes with head and paws. The abstract stripe type reduces the animal to its markings alone, which is why these rugs sit so easily in a modern room. And the double tiger arranges two animals facing each other across the field.

How ours are made

Every piece is hand-knotted in the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal using the Tibetan loop knot, from hand-spun highland wool, in some pieces blended with silk. The qualities we work with are graded by knot count:

• Naturals — approx. 60 kpsi, the robust everyday quality with a pronounced hand-spun texture
• Elegance — approx. 80 kpsi, finer drawing, the most popular grade
• Luxury — approx. 100 kpsi
• Executive — approx. 150 kpsi, for detailed pictorial work

Where silk is worked in, it is used for highlights — the stripes, the eyes, the outline of the pelt — so the pattern catches the light while the ground stays wool.

Woven to your size and palette

The traditional khaden is a small mat, and if you want a tiger rug at room size it has to be made for you — which is straightforward, and a large part of what we do here.

• Size: any format, including large room sizes and runners
• Colour: traditional amber and charcoal, or emerald, indigo, rose, monochrome greys — shades can be matched to a fabric or paint sample
• Material: pure highland wool, or wool with silk highlights
• Lead time: normally twelve to sixteen weeks

See the made-to-measure rugs page for how a commission works.

Living with a tiger rug — an honest note

This is a rug with a strong personality, and it does not share a room easily. Next to a patterned sofa or a busy wall it becomes noise; on a plain floor in a plain room it is the thing you look at. Buy it as the focal point or not at all.

The standard khaden format of 90 × 180 cm is also smaller than photographs suggest. It works beside a bed, in front of a fireplace or on a wall, but it will not anchor a seating group — for that you need a made-to-measure piece.

On wear: hand-spun highland wool is resilient and its lanolin content means dirt tends to sit on the surface rather than working in, but it is wool and it will mark, wear and need cleaning like any other. Where silk highlights are used, they will flatten faster than the wool around them in a walking line — which is an argument for putting a silk-highlighted piece somewhere it is admired rather than crossed.

At a glance

• Made in: Kathmandu Valley, Nepal
• Technique: Tibetan loop knot, hand-knotted
• Pile: hand-spun Tibetan highland wool, optionally with silk
• Foundation: cotton warp and weft
• Qualities: approx. 60, 80, 100 and 150 kpsi
• Standard format: khaden, approx. 90 × 180 cm; any size made to order
• Underfloor heating: suitable
• Label STEP Fair Trade: fair wages, no child labour, monitored working conditions

Questions we are asked

Can a tiger rug be cleaned? Yes — wool and silk both respond well to a proper hand wash. Every three to five years is a sensible interval for a piece in daily use, less often for one on a wall.

Is it suitable for a busy room? The wool qualities are, and the Naturals grade in particular. Pieces with a high silk content are better placed where traffic is lighter.

Does it work over underfloor heating? Yes. Wool on a cotton foundation conducts heat well and takes up and releases moisture as the room humidity changes.

Will a new one shed? Yes, for the first three to six months. Cutting the loops open leaves loose fibre in the pile; it stops on its own.

Care

Vacuum in the direction of the pile without a rotating brush bar, and expect loose wool at the start. Turn the piece once or twice a year so daylight falls evenly — amber and gold shades lighten in strong sun. Blot spills rather than rubbing. Customers in Germany can use our washing and repair service, with collection and return in the Würzburg region; elsewhere we are glad to help you find a specialist nearby.

Related collections

Tibetan and Nepalese rugs · Contemporary designer rugs · Perfect Plains · Small rugs · Made-to-measure rugs