The museum opened on 24 October 1994, three years after independence from the Soviet Union. It holds the largest collection of Turkmen carpets of any museum in the world — over 1,000 pieces from the 18th and 19th centuries alone, with medieval examples stretching the timeline further back. But the showpiece is unmissable. In 2001, Turkmen weavers completed a carpet measuring 301 square meters — 14 by 21.2 meters — to commemorate a decade of independence. The Guinness Book of World Records certified it as the largest hand-woven carpet on Earth. It sits on the ground floor alongside its wartime predecessor, two monuments to a craft that defines Turkmen culture more completely than any building or border.

Turkmen carpets are not decoration. They are language. Each of the five major tribal groups — Tekke, Yomud, Sarik, Chodor, and Ersari — has its own gul, the medallion-like motif that serves as both signature and story. The five guls appear on the Turkmen flag, the only national flag in the world to feature carpet designs. The museum's first floor displays Tekke and Sarik carpets, their deep reds and geometric precision reflecting centuries of tradition passed from mother to daughter. Alongside the carpets themselves, the collection includes chuvals (storage bags), khurjuns (saddlebags), and torbas — everyday objects elevated to art through the same knotting techniques used for the grand pieces.

The museum serves as more than a repository. The Turkmen government recognizes it as the official authority on Turkmen carpets — a gatekeeper role with real consequences. Carpets purchased from the museum shop or independent dealers must pass through the museum's appraisal process before they can be exported. This bureaucratic function carries an older purpose: in a global market flooded with machine-made imitations, the museum certifies what is genuine. Each approved carpet receives documentation confirming its provenance and craftsmanship, a paper trail linking a knotted wool object to the specific hands that made it.

The museum sits at 5 Gorogly Street in central Ashgabat, named for the hero of Turkmen epics. Outside, the city's white marble facades stretch in every direction. Inside, the color palette shifts to the deep reds, burgundies, and ochres of natural dyes — a different version of Turkmenistan, one measured not in square kilometers of marble but in knots per square centimeter. The carpet has always been the Turkmen home. Nomadic tribes carried their floors with them across the Karakum Desert, each carpet serving as prayer rug, sleeping mat, doorway, and dowry. The museum preserves this portable civilization in fixed form, a permanent address for a tradition that spent centuries in motion.