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Damal Baby

Damal Baby (Damal Bebeği) is a folkloric type of doll with its local clothes found in Damal district of Ardahan.

Damal district and its surrounding is a settlement area located on the transit route of Turkish tribes who migrated from Central Asia to Europe. Turkmens, the local people of the region, have preserved their traditions and customs until today. One of the most important features of this place is that women living in the region wear the clothes of the Central Asian Oghuz Turks. These clothes, which are still used today, vary according to the age, social status and economic power of the persons who wear them.

Ardahan Carpet and Rug

Carpet making is quite common in Ardahan, which has a rich heritage in terms of historical and cultural values.

The women of the region have carried this culture to the present day with the carpets they weaved on the looms in their homes. There are traces of Caucasian-Ottoman-Turkish synthesis on carpets woven in the region. Animal and plant motifs of the Seljuk carpet art, geometric and religious motifs of the Ottoman Empire are the most common figures.

Each family in the region has its own unique patterns and each motif and color used in the carpets is an expression of different emotions. In the local Caucasian carpets, which are the handcrafts of women in the region, lotus symbolizes happiness, circle symbolizes eternity, white symbolizes purity, black symbolizes mistakes, red symbolizes movement and love for religion, yellow symbolizes evil and sadness, and blue symbolizes power and righteousness.