ALMA to host Peter Poullada’s lecture

PanARMENIAN.Net - On March 23, the Armenian Library and Museum of America (ALMA) will host a lecture by Peter Poullada, a collector and independent scholar specializing in the Turkmen and their weaving, titled “Lebab Turkmen and Their Interaction with the Local Uzbeks.”

The Lebab (from Persian, “edge of the water,” i.e., “riverside”) live in the Middle Amu Darya region. Poullada’s talk will challenge common assumptions about their weaving and will include photographic images of their life and the “Bukharan” milieu - a mixture of Lebab, Uzbek, and “Sart” cultural and social traditions relating most directly to the world of women.

Poullada has collected Central Asian weaving since the 1960’s. He lived in Afghanistan and Iran in the 1960’s and 1970’s, and in Turkey in the 1980’s. He holds a BA from Princeton in Near Eastern languages and history; pursued graduate study at the University of California, Berkeley; and has published articles in HALI and the Journal of the Royal Society of Asian Affairs.

New England Society members are encouraged to bring Turkmen rugs, bags, and trappings - so-called Ersari and Beshir examples - as well as Uzbek pieces in their collections, The Armenian Weekly reported.