Culture of Turkmenistan

The Turkmens are, broadly speaking, adherents to the Sunni sect of Islam, with the remainder being a mix of Christian and other folk faiths.

Traditional dress for men consists of high, shaggy sheepskin hats and red robes over white shirts.

Women wear long sack-dresses over narrow trousers (the pants are trimmed with a band of embroidery at the ankle).

Religious clergy (Akhun) wear fully white shirts with no embroidery and the collars in modern time have become higher.

Nowadays, traditional balak are either used in more rural areas or have ceremonial use and they're mostly black and tighter in modern time dance groups.

The wearing of Balak is more common among Iranian Turkmens during daily life and is interchangeably used among Pajamas and Kurdish pants.

modern Dons are made with high quality fabrics and embroidery and the purpose is ceremonial rather than daily use thus its mostly avoided to wash them fully since it can cause damage.

In other parts of Central Asia, the chakmen is known as chapan, shekpen and other names; it is open in front with straight collar and usually has a band to fasten it in middle.

In Iran, it is common for Akhun to wear a chakmen over white shirt while uniforms in grey and blue are also popular in modern madrasahs.

In Afghanistan, the design of chakmen is different and more similar to Uzbek chapan and has lines coloured in red, blue, white, etc.