Tibetan Rugs & Nepalese Carpets — Hand-Knotted Luxury

Tibetan and Nepalese rugs — Himalayan weaving for modern rooms

These are the rugs people usually arrive at when a classical Persian pattern is too much for the room but a plain machine-made carpet is too little. They are hand-knotted in the Kathmandu Valley from Tibetan highland wool, often with a little silk, and the drawing tends to be quiet: a plain field, a soft gradient, an abstract band, or a single traditional motif such as the tiger or the dragon.

How Tibetan weaving came to Nepal

The Nepalese rug industry is younger than most people assume, and it began as refugee work. In the early 1960s the Swiss geologist Toni Hagen (1917–2003), then working in Nepal as a delegate of the International Committee of the Red Cross, saw that Tibetan refugees had brought a weaving tradition with them. With Swiss development funding, handicraft centres were set up in Jawlakhel in Kathmandu, in Chialsa in Solu-Khumbu and in Tashiling near Pokhara.

That origin still shapes the product. Because the workshops were built from scratch rather than inherited from a village tradition, they were free to work to drawings supplied from outside — which is why Nepalese weaving became the natural home for contemporary and designer rugs, while Persian centres stayed with their own repertoire.

The wool, and why it matters

The pile is hand-spun highland wool from the Changthang plateau in Tibet. Sheep at that altitude grow a fibre with a high natural lanolin content, and the wool is spun without stripping it out. Lanolin is what gives the surface its sheen and makes the fibre resist soiling — dirt sits on it rather than working into it.

The knot itself is different from the Persian one. The weaver loops the yarn around a metal rod laid across the warps, works the loop along the full row, then cuts it open. The result is a dense, upright pile with a distinctly plush handle, and it absorbs sound noticeably better than a flat, finely knotted rug — which matters in exactly the kind of open-plan room with hard floors that these rugs usually end up in.

Made to your drawing

Nepalese workshops are set up for one-off commissions, and this is where a large part of our work happens — for private clients as much as for architects and interior designers.

• Colour: around 1,200 dye recipes, and new ones can be matched to a fabric, a paint sample or a piece of stone
• Knot density: six standard qualities, from roughly 60 kpsi for a robust, textured surface up to 150 kpsi for fine drawing
• Material: pure highland wool, wool with silk, or wool with bamboo silk (viscose) for a stronger sheen at a lower price
• Format: any size, including oversize pieces and shaped rugs for stairs, curved walls or fitted niches

Lead time is normally three to five months. You can see the process and current options on our made-to-measure rugs page.

Living with a Tibetan rug — an honest note

A new hand-knotted Tibetan rug sheds. Cutting the loops open leaves short fibre ends in the pile, and for the first three to six months your vacuum will keep collecting wool. This is normal, it stops on its own, and it is not a sign of poor quality — but if it would bother you, it is better to know now.

The second point is the plain field. A single-colour or softly graded rug is beautiful and shows everything: a footprint pattern where the pile is walked in one direction, and any mark on a pale ground. Undyed and very light shades are honest but demanding; a mid-tone or a subtly textured surface is far more forgiving under daily use. Where silk is blended into the pile, it will flatten faster than the wool around it under heavy traffic — lovely in a bedroom or a sitting room, less sensible in a hallway.

At a glance

• Origin: hand-knotted in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal
• Pile: hand-spun Tibetan highland wool from the Changthang plateau, alone or blended with silk or bamboo silk (viscose)
• Knot: Tibetan loop knot worked over a rod and cut open
• Knot density: approximately 60 to 150 kpsi depending on quality
• Made to measure: any size and shape, roughly three to five months
• Underfloor heating: suitable
• Label STEP Fair Trade: fair wages, no child labour, monitored working conditions
• Documentation: written assessment of origin, material and knot count with every rug

Care

For the first months, vacuum often and without a rotating brush bar, and simply accept the loose fibre. After that, vacuum in the direction of the pile at normal suction. Turn the rug once or twice a year so that daylight and footfall fall evenly — plain fields show uneven fading more clearly than patterned ones. Blot spills rather than rubbing; lanolin-rich wool gives you more time to react than most fibres. Every few years a hand wash restores the lustre that dust takes out of the pile. 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 tiger rugs · Contemporary designer rugs · Perfect Plains · Living room rugs · Made-to-measure rugs