April 30, 2018
Mahnesa Shahsavaripour, the oldest master of shiriki peech, a kilim-weaving technique, has died at the age of 110.
Mahnesa, who lived in Sirjan, capital of the southeastern province of Kerman, received worldwide attention a year before her death when she was dubbed the mother of Iranian handicrafts.
In the summer of 2017, a team of experts from the World Crafts Council, a non-profit organization affiliated with UNESCO, visited Sirjan to document the traditional shiriki peech kilim-weaving technique. The team interviewed Mahnesa, who by that time had lost her eyesight due to old age.
“I grew up in the village of Darsetan in Kerman,” she told the visiting experts. “At the time we didn’t have electricity. We had to burn wood for light.”
Mahnesa spent nearly a century perfecting her mastery of shiriki peech, which requires a large number of weavers to work on a single flat tapestry-woven carpet or rug. Though her hands were severely burned when she was only four years old, Mahnesa went on to master kilim-weaving, embroidery, sewing, patchwork, and shading. She was instrumental in preserving Kerman’s traditional art of shiriki peech kilim-weaving.
Rest in peace