Pamiri Tajik bridal veils: The history and meaning of rubands and chashmbands

The facial veil known as ruband or chashmband was a T distinctive and significant feature of Pamiri Tajik women's traditional costume. Although these terms refer to the same item, they differ in meaning: ru means 'face', chashm means 'eye' and band is the present-tense root of the verb 'to cover' or 'to close'. Thus, ruband can be translated as 'face covering', while chashmband means 'eye covering'.

According to researchers and travellers, by the late 19th and early 20th centuries, rubands/chashmbands were not widely used in everyday life, appearing very rarely and only among wealthy families. Count A. A. Bobrinskoy, who visited Darvaz in 1898 and collected a set of fourteen rubands/chashmbands, reported the following:

Veils were never commonly used in Darvaz; they belonged to women from more affluent families; in earlier times they were worn more frequently than now, when they are used only on very special occasions; they are valued by the highlanders as old family heirlooms, carefully passed down through generations; even today, similar veils are sometimes embroidered following old patterns.¹

Bobrinskoy's account indicates that rubands/chashmbands were family heirlooms passed down from mother to daughter. This highlights their special role not only in festive attire but also in family memory: each such item became a link between generations, symbolising the continuity of tradition and the family's social status.

Orientalist A. A. Semyonov, who visited Darvaz with the count, also noted that these veils covered the faces of women from wealthy families during holidays and particularly solemn occasions. His observations confirm that, by the end of the 19th century, the practice of wearing them was gradually fading and was preserved mainly within ritual and festive contexts. These narratives were repeated by ethnographer M.S. Andreev, who recorded them as a unique element of women's costume.¹

Researchers mention the bridal veil within the context of the wedding ritual of unveiling the bride's face. Called rubinon, this ceremony is held on the day the bride arrives at the groom's house. The bride's face-covering is lifted by the bridegroom's friend or ceremonial father, using a rolling pin or stick. The ritual of unveiling the bride's face exists among other Central Asian peoples, but, among the Pamiris, the bride's face is covered with the special wedding veil called ruband. In Shugnan, Rushan and the Bartang valley, the veil could also be lifted using an arrow, which was then stuck above the hearth after the ritual, symbolising that, like the arrow, the young wife would henceforth be firmly tied to her husband's home.

This episode reflects the existence of a specific wedding ritual associated with the symbolic unveiling of the bride's face, which resonates with the concept of 'initiation' found in so-called rites of passage. A wedding is a classic rite of passage during which a girl symbolically crosses the boundary between her parental home and her husband's household, transitioning from the status of a maiden to that of a married woman. This transition is accompanied by numerous ritual actions aimed at ensuring the bride's protection, purification and well- being in her new social role.

Covering the face with a veil, limiting contact, and observing avoidance customs typical of the peoples of Central Asia-these all reflect a liminal period, an intermediate state between two life statuses. It is in this context that the ruband/chashmband gains special significance. Taken together, researchers' descriptions portray this textile as an exclusively festive and ceremonial element of women's attire, serving as an indicator of the family's status and wealth.

The first explorers of the Pamir region brought back the earliest collections of rubands. Fourteen were acquired by Bobrinskoy, and thirteen by the ethnographer Andreev. Today, these objects are preserved in museums in St Petersburg and Moscow. Around sixteen are found in the Übersee Museum in Bremen, dispelling the notion that ruband collections exist only in Russian museums.

The Historical Museum of Bern holds two face veils obtained from Swiss ethnologists Micheline Centlivres-Demont and Pierre Centlivres in the 1970s. They acquired them in Rustak during a scientific research expedition in Afghanistan. Furthermore, thirteen examples collected by the German traveller and researcher Willi Rickmer Rickmers (1873-1965) are preserved in the Ethnological Museum at the Humboldt Forum in Berlin. Rickmers has also been associated with the rubands in the Übersee Museum collection; another theory posits that these objects entered the collection through the German Hindukush Expedition (1955-1956) led by Professor Adolf Friedrich (1914-1956).

The veils found in European museum collections can be divided into two categories. Those with a mesh over the eyes are called rubands, while those without mesh are known as chashmbands. Both types are rectangular shape. A ruband completely covers the face, including the eye area, which is made of a fine mesh of threads that allows the wearer to see while concealing her face from others. The decoration is characterised by rich embroidery that densely covers the entire fabric of the face veil. The embroidery is executed with silk threads, and features animal and plant motifs.

Another variation of the ruband includes examples where the embroidery forms wide borders along the edges, top and bottom. Geometric patterns may also adorn the main fabric. Such an example is held in the Bern Historical Muscum collection (9). An additional difference between the two variations of rubands is the placement of the eye mesh: in the second variation, it sits directly along the top edge, while, in the first, it is preceded by a wide embroidered band.

Chashmbands leave the eye area open and do not have mesh. They feature more restrained decoration and a different embroidery composition: only the upper edge of the veil, where the ties are located, is decorated with a dense embroidered band, while the rest of the fabric is made of tulle on a lining. The differences in structural and decorative features reflect the diversity of local traditions in the design of women's festive costumes, as well as varying functions and levels of formality in their use during avoidance rituals.

The rubands in the Übersee Museum collection are primarily made from cotton fabric shaped into rectangles. The eye mesh, crafted from silk threads, is located at the top section. In the upper corners there are ties made from handwoven silk braid (djiak), the ends of which-where preserved-are decorated with single, double or triple pom-poms with tassels. Occasionally, the ties are positioned in the centre of the upper edge.

The construction, designation, the width of the piece and the length of its ties indicate that the ruband fully enveloped the face and was probably secured onto a headpiece of considerable diameter. By contrast, the chashmband was fastened immediately beneath the eyes. The edges of the ruband were trimmed with black or dark-brown silk braid. The surface was densely covered with embroidery made from silk threads. The ornament's outlines were first traced and marked with black threads. The embroidery was done using a satin stitch, which also minimised thread usage.

The layout is almost identical across all ruband veils. The central field is an clongated rectangle divided into several horizontal bands, with the eye mesh placed in the upper band. The central field is framed on the sides and bottom by one or two borders. Along the edges of the entire fabric, there is usually an additional, typically wider, border. Each ornamental segment is separated from the next by lines embroidered with red, bright pink and burgundy threads.

The main motif in the embroidery compositions is the depiction of a bird, which occupies a central place in the ornamental structure of the coverlet. In both academic and folk interpretations, these figures are understood as roosters (khrus) or peacocks (tavus)-both symbols widely found in the decorative and applied arts of the peoples of Central Asia. The rooster, heralding the beginning of the bright day and the departure of the dark night, is a revered symbol among followers of the Zoroastrian religion. According to ancient beliefs, the crowing of roosters and hens drives away evil spirits.

There is also another interpretation of this motif: some believe that the depicted bird may be connected to the image of the Simurgh, a mythological bird and Zoroastrian symbol embodying the ideas of rebirth, protection and well-being. Similar images are commonly found on ancient Sogdian silks, suggesting a deep historical continuity of symbolism in the ornamental traditions of the region.

However, the classic depiction of the Simurgh, known from iconographic and literary sources, differs from those presented on the rubands. In the Iranian tradition, the Simurgh is depicted as a bird with a peacock's tail, a dog's head and lion's paws-a hybrid mythological creature combining features of various animals and embodying the ideas of strength, wisdom and eternal renewal. Such hybrid traits are absent in the ornamental motifs of the Darvaz rubands: the bird figures here are interpreted much more realistically and resemble roosters or peacocks familiar in the local zoomorphic symbolism.

Nevertheless, it cannot be ruled out that popular memory has transformed and reinterpreted the image of the Simurgh, preserving it in a different, 'domesticated' form-through association with recognisable birds that carry similar meanings.

The mandatory red in the embroidery, which dominates the compositions, can also be seen as indirect evidence of Zoroastrian heritage; red is the colour of fire, a sacred element associated with purification and vital energy. Thus, the symbolism of the images on the ruband represents a fusion of ancient Zoroastrian beliefs and local interpretations, reflecting the long-standing presence and transformation of mythological motifs in the women's decorative and applied arts of the Pamir region and neighbouring areas.

The fiery birds were intended to protect the bride, as were the triangular tumar amulets, the image of an arrow, and the related ritual of lifting the
veil. Paired bird figures accompanied by the tree of life and numerous rosettes promised the newlywed couple a happy life, prosperity and fertility.

The motifs of birds, amulets, arrows, the tree of life and rosettes form a stable symbolic complex that traces back to the ancient cosmogonic beliefs of the peoples of Eastern Iran and Central Asia. In Zoroastrian and post- Zoroastrian traditions, the tree of life embodies the concept of world order and eternal renewal, connecting the celestial, earthly and underworld realms. A bird positioned at the top or near the tree acts as a mediator between worlds, serving as a link between the divine and human, the heavenly and the earthly.
Within this system, the image of a cross or rosette often symbolises the solar principle, the movement of light and time, functioning as a kind of 'axis mundi' upon which cosmic balance rests. Thus, the surface of the ruband transforms into a colourful, silk-woven universe, where each ornamental element-bird, tree, rosette, flower-participates in visually expressing the ideas of life, fertility and protection.
The intertwining of zoomorphic and geometric motifs allows the ruband to be seen not merely as a decorative item but as a sacred textile reflecting archaic beliefs about the world, the feminine principle, and the protective power of fabric. In this sense, it becomes not only a part of a woman's festive costume but also a bearer of symbolic knowledge, embodying ideas about the surrounding world, fate and the cyclical nature of life.
Its sacred significance is further enhanced by its role as a curtain in avoidance rituals, where it serves as a threshold object dividing the realms of 'insiders' and 'outsiders', the 'visible' and the 'invisible'. In weddings and related ceremonies, the veiling of the bride's face and the shielding of her from the gaze of elders symbolise her transition into a new social status while simultancously providing magical protection against harmful influences.

Note: The author is grateful to Dr Renate Noda and Lucie Tielbar of the Übersee Museum, as well as Rahel Wille and Flora Tarelli of the Bern Historical Museum, for their assistance in providing access to rubands and photographic materials. Thanks also to Melanie Crebs of the Ethnological Museum at the Humboldt Forum for information on rubands in the collection