Chogha

Not to be confused with Chokha or Shoqa.

Detail of a Bakhtiari Chogha showing its characteristic pattern

The Chogha (Persian: چوقا, romanized: čuqā; also spelled Chuqa, Choqa or Chokha) is a sleeveless, knee-length woollen tunic worn by men of the Lori-speaking peoples of the Zagros Mountains in western Iran, above all the Bakhtiari. It is woven by women on a horizontal loom from natural white wool with vertical dark stripes. It is regarded as the most characteristic element of the traditional Bakhtiari man's costume.

Name

The word chogha is old in Persian. The forms čūḵā, čūḵa, čūḡā and čūqā appear in medieval Persian texts for a man's short coat of rough woollen cloth. Other historical and regional uses of the word include:

• a woollen coat still worn in Māzandarān and other rural areas;
• a camel driver's sleeved coat in Bošrūya in Khorasan, where it is pronounced čoḡa;
• in earlier centuries, a woollen surplice worn by Christian monks, and a kind of raincoat.

In Iran the Bakhtiari garment is also known locally as dehghani abba ('peasant's cloak') or 'shepherd's cloak'.

Description

The chogha is a straight, knee-length tunic without sleeves. It has no buttons or collar and is open down the front. Although sleeveless, it has wide openings for the arms. The short sleeve-like flaps are mostly decorative and can also serve as a pocket.

The Chogha garment, worn together with Debit trousers, is the traditional clothing of the Bakhtiari nomadic men who live in the heart of the Zagros Mountains.

It is worn only by men. Men wear a shirt under it in summer and warm clothing in winter. Urban Bakhtiari also wear it at ceremonies. Today it is often worn over a Western-style jacket (kot). It is worn in all seasons. In cold or windy weather it is fastened at the waist with a sash, and the lower part is rolled up when climbing in the mountains.

The dense woollen weave partly keeps out rain. The garment retains warmth in winter and stays cool in summer.

Pattern

The chogha has a white ground crossed by vertical dark stripes. Encyclopædia Iranica describes the stripes as indigo. The cloth is woven as a strip with two equal halves:

• one half has a plain striped weave;
• the other half carries a black stepped motif.

Chogha Zanbil Ziggurat complex in Shoush, Khuzestan, Iran

When the garment is made up, the plain half forms the lower part and the half with the stepped motif forms the upper part.

Several symbolic interpretations circulate in Iranian popular sources, although none has a scholarly basis:

• The white and black stand for good and evil. The white lines are said to rise from bottom to top and the black lines to descend, representing the victory of good over evil.
• The stepped pattern was inspired by the Elamite ziggurat of Chogha Zanbil, or by the stepped battlements of Persepolis.

Production

Among the Bakhtiari, weaving is done exclusively by women, using wool and hair from the tribe's own sheep and goats.

Wool preparation

At the end of spring the men shear the sheep and hand the wool to the women. The women clean it, lay it out in the sun, wash and dry it, and spin it to the thickness of fine knitting yarn. The woollen weft is handspun by the women of the tribe, while the fine cotton warp is bought at market. To make the yarn fine and even, spinners pass it through a hole made in the long thumbnail while turning the spindle.

Weaving

The chogha is woven on a horizontal ground loom, in a technique similar to kilim weaving but much finer, with thin warp and weft. The loom is operated by a single weaver. Details of the process:

• Dimensions: The woven strip is 2.5–3.5 m long and 50–70 cm wide.
• Materials: The warp is cotton (sometimes wool) and the weft is wool. A medium-sized chogha requires about 1 kg of cotton yarn and 1 kg of raw wool.
• Method: The weaver works from memory, without a pattern or drawing. After weaving, the strip is cut to size and the pieces are sewn together.
• Time: Weaving one chogha takes about 20 days.

The finished cloth is identical on both sides.

Centres and grades

Quality varies with the materials used, and a man's chogha also indicates his status within the tribe. The following types and centres are the best known:

• Liwasi: The finest choghas are called čuqā-līvāsī, after a village in Luristan famous for making them.
• Kiarsi: Among the Bakhtiari, the most prized type is the Kiarsi chogha, woven in the Behdarvand clan. It is made by the women of the village of Shokal Hajivand in Andika County, Khuzestan, which has long been the main production centre of Bakhtiari choghas.
• Movri: Next in reputation is the Movri chogha of the Movri clan.
• Aligudarz: Aligudarz in Lorestan province has several hundred active chogha weavers.

History

The chronology of the Bakhtiari chogha is disputed.

Scholarly account

The ethnographer Jean-Pierre Digard, writing in the Encyclopædia Iranica, considers that the chogha was probably once found only in Luristan. In his view it spread among the Bakhtiari in the 1940s, where it replaced the qaba (cloak). He suggests that Bakhtiari men gave up the qaba fairly readily because it was worn throughout Persia and was not a distinctive part of their costume. This change followed the clothing reforms imposed under Reza Shah (1925–1941).

Popular claims

Iranian tourism and news sources describe the chogha as one of the oldest tribal garments of Iran. The official announcement of its national registration in 2015 referred to a history of about 150 years. These claims are not supported by historical documentation.

Regional distribution

Sources also differ on who wears the garment. Digard treats it as characteristic of Lori-speaking men in general. The Khuzestan cultural heritage office states that it is less used among the Lurs of Lorestan and mainly worn by the Bakhtiari. Tehran Times reports that it distinguishes Bakhtiari men from Lurs and Kurds.

Cultural significance

The chogha forms part of the full Bakhtiari male costume, together with the following elements:

• the tall black felt cap (kolāh-e ḵosrowī);
• very wide black trousers (tombūn), held up by a leather belt or a large rolled white sash (šāl);
• giveh sandals with upturned pointed toes.

The garment has a place in Bakhtiari ceremonies and oral tradition:

• When someone dies, the men of the tribe take off their chogha as a sign of mourning.
• The chogha is worn at weddings for the traditional handkerchief dance.
• A proverb says "I do not need a chogha after the rain", meaning that help which comes too late is of no use.

Recognition

• 2015: On 5 January 2015 (15 Dey 1393), Iran's Cultural Heritage Registration Council entered the chogha on the country's national heritage list, as the eleventh intangible heritage element of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province.
• 2025: In December 2025, Aligudarz was registered as the "National City of Chogha Weaving", the second national craft city in Lorestan after Borujerd. It has also been proposed as a candidate for recognition as a world city of chogha weaving.
• 2026: In February 2026, the village of Shokal Hajivand was registered as a national chogha-weaving village. By August 2026, Bazoft had been registered as the "National Region of Chogha Weaving" in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari.

See also

• Bakhtiari people
• Lurs
• Iranian traditional clothing

Further reading

• Digard, Jean-Pierre (1976). "Note sur quelques vêtements Baxtyâri". Cahiers de la Délégation archéologique française en Iran (in French). 6: 117–128.
• Digard, Jean-Pierre (1981). Techniques des nomades Baxtyâri d'Iran (in French). Cambridge; Paris: Cambridge University Press; Éditions de la Maison des sciences de l'homme.
• Digard, Jean-Pierre (1971). "La parure chez les Baxtyâri". Objets et mondes (in French). 11 (1): 117–132.