Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, August 18, 2006--Government-run Web site Turkmenistan.ru reported Friday that weavers from the Ashgabat Wool-Manufacturing Company "Archag" are making a 8.4 square meter (90 square foot) carpet, featuring the face of President Saparmurat Niyazov surrounded by historical decorations "embodying the spirit of our nation."
The carpet features 450,000 knots per square meter and the weavers hope to finish it by Oct. 27 when the poor, desert nation marks the 15th anniversary of its independence, the Web site reported.
The eccentric Niyazov has ruled the energy-rich nation with an iron fist for 20 years, isolating it from the outside world, spending lavishly on fanciful projects and creating an elaborate personality cult.
He has ordered all citizens to call him the Great Turkmenbashi, or Father of All Turkmen, has outlawed opera and lip-synching, and called for young people not to get gold tooth caps.
He has also penned several poetry books and the Rukhnama, a code of moral guidelines now studied by every Turkmen schoolchild. Statues and busts are scattered across the country. A massive gilded statue of him in the capital Ashgabat rotates to always face the sun.
In recent years, Niyazov has tapped the country's vast energy-wealth for outlandish projects _ a huge, man-made lake in the Kara Kum desert, a cypress forest, an ice palace outside the capital and a possible ski resort.
Last week, he called for building a 40-meter (130-foot) pyramid as another monument to independence.
