Collection

Khotan

Where worlds met, something rare was created. The Loomish Khotan collection celebrates a carpet tradition shaped along the Silk Road — a place where cultures, ideas, and artistic languages travelled together. Persian gardens, Chinese cloud forms, and Central Asian geometry blend into something entirely their own: expressive, unexpected, and impossible to place in just one world. Selected for their unusual colours, distinctive patterns, and unmistakable presence, these are pieces made for those drawn to something outside the ordinary.

3 pieces online now
Khotan hand-knotted silk rug, 4 × 6.2 ft
Nº 01Khotan4 × 6.2 ftRs 273,000 Single piece
Khotan hand-knotted silk rug, 7.9 × 10.2 ft
Nº 02Khotan7.9 × 10.2 ftRs 725,000 Single piece
Khotan hand-knotted silk rug, 6.6 × 10 ft
Nº 03Khotan6.6 × 10 ftRs 596,000 Single piece
End of the room

That is the selection online.

The house holds a great deal more than is shown here. What you do not see, ask for.

Khotan hand-knotted silk rug, 4 × 6.2 ft01Khotan4 × 6.2 ftRs 273,000 Khotan hand-knotted silk rug, 7.9 × 10.2 ft02Khotan7.9 × 10.2 ftRs 725,000 Khotan hand-knotted silk rug, 6.6 × 10 ft03Khotan6.6 × 10 ftRs 596,000
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The tradition

Khotan rugs

What a Khotan rug is

A Khotan is a hand-knotted rug from the design tradition of the oasis city of the same name, on the southern arm of the Silk Road at the edge of the Taklamakan desert. It is the one carpet tradition where Chinese, Persian and Central Asian drawing meet directly, and all three conversations are visible in a single field.

How to recognise one

The vocabulary is distinct. Pomegranate trees rising from vessels, open lattices, key-fret and meander borders, cloudbands borrowed from Chinese silk. The palette is softer than Central Asian weaving — madder that has settled toward coral, ochre, a blue closer to slate than to indigo. Fields are typically open rather than crowded.

Why the fields are empty

Khotan gives a room air rather than filling it. Where a Persian carpet builds density, a Khotan leaves ground between its forms, and that space is the design decision, not an absence of one. It is the reason the tradition sits so easily under contemporary furniture, which needs room around it to be read.

Where a Khotan sits

These are pieces for a room with something to look at and nothing competing. The pieces online run from about 4 × 6.2 ft to 7.9 × 10.2 ft, and each was chosen for its colour rather than its conformity to the type.

Questions

What is a Khotan rug?

A Khotan is a hand-knotted rug from the design tradition of Khotan, an oasis city on the southern Silk Road in what is now Xinjiang. It combines Chinese, Persian and Central Asian motifs — pomegranate trees, open lattices, key-fret borders and cloudbands — in a characteristically open field.

How do you identify a Khotan rug?

Look for an open field rather than a dense one, a key-fret or meander border, and motifs drawn from more than one culture at once. The palette is the other tell: softer than Central Asian weaving, with coral-toned madder, ochre and a slate-leaning blue rather than deep indigo.

What is the difference between a Khotan and a Persian rug?

A Persian carpet generally builds density, curvilinear vines and a dominant central medallion. A Khotan leaves the field open, draws its forms more geometrically, and borrows Chinese motifs that never appear in Persian weaving.

Do Khotan rugs suit contemporary interiors?

Particularly well. The open field and muted palette give modern furniture the space it needs to be seen, where a dense carpet would crowd it.