12 Section Study of art

Ha’ykel

There are various spellings of this including halqalı, 

qalqalı, and halqanlı. Apart from the sa’wkele, the 

“ha’ykel” is probably the most impressive single item of 

Karakalpak jewellery. It is a breast decoration, generally of 

silver and sometimes gilded, with carnelian or coloured 

glass inserts. A Karakalpak woman wore a dramatic ha’ykel 

along with an oramal and a jipek jegde [2, 107].

It should be noted that Karakalpak embroidery on 

red, black and white blackgrounds is done with looped-

chain-stitch on the cross.