A so-called ‘pillar’ carpet made in the Ningxia region of China specifically to go around columns or ‘pillars’ in a Buddhist monastery. The five clawed (Imperial) dragon is portrayed in disjointed ‘segments’ so as when the carpet is wrapped around a column / pillar, it appears that the dragon is writhing around the column / pillar. Here the blue scaled dragon is depicted chasing the precious jewel through clouds, and has long whiskers protruding from his nose, while above the dragon floats a benign mythical beasts head. Clouds, mountains and waves anchor the bottom, while a single key meander, and above it a strip of un-dyed brown wool, anchor the top. An earlier owner has in this instance edge the top and bottom in red cloth, so it can be hung from a wall. Given that the ends are intact, and the red colour cloth, it points to this more recent ‘addition’ possibly having been done by a Buddhist monastery, that hung the carpet as opposed to wrapped it around a column. A stunning old piece in very good condition with all natural dyes. A collectors piece.