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The Depository documents 20 techniques in Afghanistan; by risk level: 14 critically endangered, 3 endangered, 2 vulnerable. Each record opens with a public summary; the full research record is free to view once registered.
Namdah (نمده) is the Afghan felt tradition — distinct from Central Asian shyrdak and kigiz in combining plain white felt with both surface embroidery and painted floral decoration in a single object.
Maidani (میدانی) is the silk embroidery tradition of the Hazara people of central Afghanistan — one of Afghanistan's most distinct ethnic groups, whose craft traditions have been particularly targeted in the current conflict.
Resham-duzi (رشم دوزی — silk needlework) is the Herat tradition of silk satin stitch embroidery on fine cotton or silk base cloth — producing the elaborate floral panels used to decorate cushion covers, wall hangings, and women's clothing.
Khamak (خامک) is the Pashtun counted thread embroidery tradition — producing geometric patterns by counting specific warp and weft threads of a loose-weave base cloth and stitching across specific counts.
Kuchi-kari (کوچی کاری — Kuchi work) is the embroidery tradition of the Kuchi — the Pashtun nomadic pastoralists who move between Pakistan and Afghanistan following seasonal grazing routes.
The postin (پوستین) is the embroidered sheepskin coat of the Pashtun people — the most prestigious winter garment of southern and eastern Afghanistan.
A distinct branch of Afghan pile-carpet weaving in which traditional geometric and floral motifs are replaced or interwoven with imagery of modern warfare — tanks, helicopters, rifles, grenades, maps, and political portraiture — that…
The Herat carpet (هرات قالی) is one of the most celebrated regional carpet traditions in the world — distinguished by the mahi (fish) pattern: a repeating field of stylized fish within a geometric rosette grid that has been woven in Herat…
The Maimana kilim (میمنه کیلیم) is the flat-weave textile tradition of Faryab Province in northern Afghanistan — the meeting point of Uzbek and Turkmen weaving traditions with Afghan Pashtun aesthetics, producing kilims of extraordinary…
Ornate wood carving is documented as one of Afghanistan's oldest crafts, decorating private houses, mosques, and furniture for millennia.
The making of jali — latticed wooden screens built from an ornamental geometric pattern — historically used throughout traditional Kabul domestic and public architecture, with surviving examples concentrated in the Murad Khani and…
Nuristan Province in northeastern Afghanistan maintains the most distinctive wood carving tradition in the country — the carved architectural elements (columns, door frames, ancestral figures) of Nuristani houses and burial monuments that…
The raw-material chain that underlies Afghanistan's hand-knotted carpet traditions (Herat, Maimana, and others): Karakul sheep wool — prized for its dual fleece of a long, coarse outer layer and a softer inner layer that together give a…
Ghazni (غزنی) was historically one of the greatest metalwork centers of the Islamic world — the capital of the Ghaznavid empire (10th-12th century CE).
The hand-blowing of distinctive colored glassware — historically renowned goblets, vases, and decorative vessels in characteristic deep blue and green — in Herat, western Afghanistan's historic Silk Road trading hub and 15th-century…
Istalif (استالف) is a town 35km north of Kabul that has been Afghanistan's primary pottery center for centuries — producing the characteristic turquoise-blue and green glazed earthenware that is the most widely recognized Afghan domestic…
The Sar-e-Sang lapis lazuli mines in Badakhshan Province, northeastern Afghanistan, are the world's primary source of lapis lazuli — continuously worked for at least 6,000 years, supplying the blue pigment for Egyptian tomb paintings,…
Nastaliq is a style of Islamic calligraphy formalized in the 14th century, traditionally credited to the master calligrapher Mir 'Ali Tabrizi, combining elements of two earlier styles, Naskh and Ta'liq ('hanging') — the latter naming the…
The making of the rabab, a short-necked, waisted lute carved from a single block of mulberry wood and considered central to Afghan musical identity, in the workshops around Kharabat Street and Shor-Bazaar in Kabul, the quarter where…
The traditional building method behind most historic domestic architecture in Kabul and much of rural Afghanistan, combining sun-dried mudbrick, rammed earth (pakhsa), and a timber-and-brick composite wall technique called senj.