Guide
In the village of Mustafapaşa near Ürgüp, the Cappadocia Art and History Museum is devoted to kitre dolls, figures modelled from tragacanth gum. Radiye Gül founded it in 2001, and the museum describes it as Türkiye's first kitre doll museum; it has held private museum status under the Ministry of Culture since 2005 and is a member of ICOM.
The dolls are arranged in costumed scenes with their own sets that tell stories from Anatolian history, culture and folk tales. Gül, who has trained in crafts from wood carving and embroidery to felt, marbling, miniature and illumination, makes every costume, set and accessory herself. According to the museum, kitre doll-making was first put on the curriculum of technical schools in the early Republic on Atatürk's initiative and later faded; the museum also runs workshops with schools and universities to keep the craft alive.
