Kyrgyzstan - Kalpak Dignifies the Man

The things that make Kyrgyz people known around the world are our kalpak [the felt hat], our state, our territory, our wonderful and beautiful land, our mountains and water. Among all these, our kalpak, the headwear, is the treasure of people and the nation. Kalpak makes us different from and distinguished by other people. It is our business card, so to speak. If you look into Manas [a famous Kyrgyz epic] and other tales and legends, you realize that kalpak has been revered and respected as a sacred headwear of the Kyrgyz from the time immemorial. Dinara, bring a lamb wool, please. Let’s mix it, so that wool felts better. Put it over there. Let’s take it out and you beat up lamb wool. Well, this wool is ready. We prepare lamb wool by beating it up and then we fluff it up on top of the sheep wool. Let us start making felt for kalpak. First, we take sheep wool and fluff it up evenly. Then, we even it up with a club. After that, we take lamb wool and make it even once again… like this. In order to make a nice piece of felt, we make sure everything is even. The wool should be laid out thin and even. Then, we pour hot water to the all parts. You keep pouring water till the end, while I start rolling it up. We do it because hot water actually felts the wool. Pour over here (shows the places) This spot did not get enough water. Pour more water, otherwise, it wouldn’t felt. After wrapping it in a straw-mat, we tie it up tightly. After having it tied up, we need to pour more hot water. We need to make sure water gets inside. Now we trample it for an hour. If we had a big straw-mat, we would have children stomping on it. Wool felts in 1-1,5 hours. We took autumn wool and mixed it with lamb wool, it should make a very dense felt. One should slap the mats as if stomping on them. -See, that’s how felt is made. This is an ancient method of making felt. It is way more durable than felt made by modern machines. The quality of hand-made felt is also better. We pour some more hot water after half an hour to make sure all wool has felted. The felt must be ready. It has been an hour now. Now, we will take the felt out of straw-mats. The felt turned out very sense. Come Dinara, open that side. Even the strings of the mats felted as well, synthetic materials will not do this It felted well because we used autumn wool. Yes, and also because of lamb wool. It also depends on hands of the person making felt. Both you and me are ‘light-handed’, that is why the felt turned out good. God willing, kalpak will turn out good as well. Now, felt is done. It turned out well and nice. Now, we fold it into two, roll it up and wash it with cold water. Cold water makes the colors and dirt come out. It would be all white, right? It should be all white at the end. Wool’s dirt and grease must be washed out. It is whitening up, keep pouring. Then, we should carefully let all water drain because it is a new felt. Bismillahir rahmanir Rahim [with the name of God most Gracious and most Merciful]. It turned out well. It felted very well. Just enough for one kalpak. Let it dry now. Then we will cut it for kalpak. We took out the felt out of straw-mats. Now, let me show you how you cut felt for sewing kalpak. Back in the day people used fingers to measure the length because there were no meter rolls. For example, they would measure person’s head and then cut the felt. Nowadays, we take the measurements, draw it on paper and use it as a pattern. Kalpak is the most sacred element of all garment. Kalpak is a heritage left from our ancestors. After taking the pattern for kalpak, we should cut the edges to make it even. We put the pattern against the felt, that is when we see extra parts sticking out. Kalpak consists of four parts, all of which should be exactly the same size. If only one part is not the same size, the kalpak would not come out well. Four parts of kalpak are called fire, water, air and earth. We cut out all four parts using the pattern. Four parts of kalpak are connected to one another as north and south, and east and west. Because there is no north without south and no east without west. Only when all four parts of kalpak are equal, it starts taking its shape. Now we should cut everything evenly. Kalpak was never given as a present, it was never sold because it was a heritage passed from father to son. Making kalpaks is falling into oblivion and that is why we are making it to pass this knowledge to our children and grandchildren. Patterns are put against the smooth side of the felt. Then, it is sewn up with silk thread (back in the day, people used woolen thread). titching also requires some skill. It is stitched like kerege [cells around the yurt’s sides]. Some craftswomen also add pieces of cloth while stitching. Everything is hand-made.