Beautiful rendering of a benevolent dragon ‘pillar’ carpet from the Ningxia region of China, circa 2nd quarter of the 1900's, made specifically to go around columns or ‘pillars’ in a Buddhist monastery. The five clawed (Imperial) dragon is intentionally 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. Here the golden scaled dragon is depicted in the clouds chasing the precious jewel, with the dragons head very well drawn with a flowing lion-like mane and long whiskers. Clouds, mountains and waves anchor the bottom, while a pearl border, and above it an angular t-shaped meander, anchor the top. a mix of aniline and natural dyes, and un-dyed wool with a thick pile. Cotton warp and weft, size 2.20m x 0.98m (86.5" x 38.5"). a lovely piece in excellent condition.