Dish · Nationwide
Plov (osh)
The centrepiece of any Uzbek meal: meat, onions and yellow carrots are cooked into a rich base in a kazan, then rice is steamed on top. UNESCO-listed since 2016.
Culture
Food, crafts and tradition
Plov and tandoor bread, Rishtan ceramics and Margilan ikat silk, weddings and festivals — every region has its own flavours and crafts.
Plov (osh)Tashkent plovSamarkand plovBukhara plov and oshi sofiFergana plovKhorezm plovSamsaJizzakh samsaKabob (shashlik)Gijduvan kebabTandir kabob (tandoor lamb)Qozon kabobLagmanMantiChuchvaraSumalakHalimShurpaUgra oshi (noodle soup)DimlamaMastavaKazyAchichukUzbek bread (non)Samarkand nonPatir (Tashkent patir)QurtTukhum barakShivit oshiKarakalpak beshbarmak (turama)Juvari gurtikNo‘xat sho‘rak (chickpea stew)Novvot, parvarda and halvaDried fruit and nutsUzbek melonsNorin (naryn)Rishtan ceramicsGijduvan ceramicsMargilan atlas and adrasBukhara gold embroideryKhiva woodcarvingChust knivesChust doppi (skullcap)Samarkand paperSuzani and Bukhara embroideryNurata suzaniSamarkand and Urgut suzaniShahrisabz embroidery and the iroqi skullcapCarpet weavingCopper chasing (kandakorlik)Jewellery making (zargarlik)Karakalpak jewelleryGanch carvingTilework (koshinkorlik)Musical instrument makingThe Karakalpak yurt and feltNaqqoshlik, illumination and miniature paintingHospitality and the dastarkhanTea culture and the choyxonaThe Uzbek weddingBeshik to‘yi (cradle feast)The mahallaHasharNavruz customsShashmaqom and the maqom traditionBakhshi artLazgiAskiya, the art of witKatta ashula (‘great song’)KurashKupkari (ulak)National dressRamadan and iftarNasreddin Afandi anecdotesThe cultural space of BoysunNew YearDefenders of the Motherland DayInternational Women’s Day (8 March)Navruz holidayDay of Remembrance and HonourIndependence DayTeachers’ and Mentors’ DayConstitution DayRamazon hayiti (Eid al-Fitr)Qurbon hayiti (Eid al-Adha)
01 · 36 dishes
Cuisine
From plov to samsa and sumalak: what to taste, where and how.
Dish · Tashkent (city), Tashkent Region
Tashkent plov
The capital’s style of plov: everything is fried first and the rice is mixed into the base; wedding plov adds kazy sausage, chickpeas, raisins and sometimes quail eggs.
Dish · Samarkand
Samarkand plov
A layered plov in which nothing is stirred: the rice stays pale, and the carrots and meat are served on top of it.
Dish · Bukhara
Bukhara plov and oshi sofi
Bukhara’s own plovs: oshi sofi, made with separately boiled and drained rice, and plov cooked with mung beans.
Dish · Fergana, Andijan +1
Fergana plov
The dark plov of the Fergana Valley: a bone, meat, onions and carrots are fried long and hard until the zirvak turns deep brown.
Dish · Khorezm
Khorezm plov
Khorezm’s plov tradition, including suzma palov, in which the rice is boiled separately and drained before it meets the zirvak.
Dish · Nationwide
Samsa
Flaky pastries baked on the inner wall of a tandoor, filled with hand-chopped lamb, tail fat and onion — or wild greens in spring and pumpkin in autumn.
Dish · Jizzakh
Jizzakh samsa
Jizzakh’s culinary calling card: a large dome-shaped samsa made from three layers of dough, packed with lamb and tail fat and dipped in sunflower oil.
Dish · Nationwide
Kabob (shashlik)
Skewered meat grilled over embers — lamb, beef, meat with tail fat, liver, minced qiyma (lula) kabob — served with onion, vinegar and hot bread.
Dish · Bukhara
Gijduvan kebab
The famous minced-meat kebab of Gijduvan in Bukhara Region: the meat is minced twice, frozen, chopped and pressed onto skewers.
Dish · Kashkadarya, Surkhandarya +1
Tandir kabob (tandoor lamb)
The pride of Kashkadarya, Surkhandarya and Jizzakh: lamb slow-cooked for hours in a sealed tandoor with juniper branches.
Dish · Nationwide
Qozon kabob
Lamb and potatoes fried and then braised in a kazan: a simple, hearty dish of teahouses and outdoor feasts.
Dish · Nationwide
Lagman
Long hand-pulled noodles topped with a sauté of meat and vegetables — a Uyghur dish that has become an everyday staple in Uzbekistan.
Dish · Nationwide
Manti
Large dumplings steamed in a tiered qasqon, filled with knife-chopped lamb, plenty of onion and tail fat — or pumpkin in autumn.
Dish · Nationwide
Chuchvara
Small boiled Uzbek dumplings, served in broth, with yoghurt or fried until crisp.
Dish · Nationwide
Sumalak
A thick, sweet paste of sprouted-wheat juice and flour stirred all night in a kazan — the defining taste of Navruz, made without any sugar.
Dish · Nationwide
Halim
A thick porridge of wheat and meat stirred for hours — a hearty dish of early spring and cold days.
Dish · Nationwide
Shurpa
A clear, fragrant lamb soup made either boiled (qaynatma) or fried first (qovurma) — the main hot dish at lunch and on winter days.
Dish · Nationwide
Ugra oshi (noodle soup)
A thick soup of home-cut noodles, meat and vegetables; each region has its own dough and way of serving it, often with yoghurt.
Dish · Nationwide
Dimlama
Meat and seasonal vegetables layered in a kazan and braised for hours in their own steam.
Dish · Nationwide
Mastava
A rice soup made on the same principle as plov, with the meat fried first — often called ‘liquid plov’; served with yoghurt and herbs.
Dish · Nationwide
Kazy
A sausage of horse-rib meat and fat in a natural casing — the crowning touch of wedding plov and the constant companion of norin.
Dish · Nationwide
Achichuk
A salad of thinly sliced tomato, onion and hot pepper — plov’s constant companion.
Dish · Nationwide
Uzbek bread (non)
Round tandoor bread heads every Uzbek table: obi non, gijda, patir, shirmoy — and each region’s own loaves.
Dish · Samarkand
Samarkand non
A tandoor loaf with a thin stamped centre, a thick rim and a glossy crust — Samarkand’s best-known taste and the souvenir everyone takes home.
Dish · Tashkent (city), Fergana
Patir (Tashkent patir)
A rich, layered tandoor bread made with butter, cracklings or onion; Tashkent and the Fergana Valley bake dozens of kinds.
Dish · Nationwide
Qurt
Salty balls of strained yoghurt, sometimes peppered and dried in the sun — the cheapest and punchiest snack in any bazaar.
Dish · Khorezm, Karakalpakstan
Tukhum barak
Khorezm’s signature dish: delicate boiled dumplings filled with raw egg mixed with milk or butter.
Dish · Khorezm
Shivit oshi
Known as ‘Khorezm’ or ‘green’ lagman: dill-flavoured noodles (shivit means dill) served with a meat sauce and suzma; sources trace the dish to Khiva.
Dish · Karakalpakstan
Karakalpak beshbarmak (turama)
The Karakalpaks’ festive dish: boiled meat and sorghum-flour dumplings are finely chopped, mixed and served on a shared platter with broth.
Dish · Karakalpakstan, Khorezm
Juvari gurtik
An old dish of Karakalpak and Khorezm cooking: coin-shaped sorghum-flour dumplings simmered in meat broth.
Dish · Samarkand
No‘xat sho‘rak (chickpea stew)
A thick stew of lamb and soaked chickpeas cooked in a kazan, best known in the Samarkand region.
Dish · Nationwide
Novvot, parvarda and halva
Uzbek sweets for the tea table: novvot crystals grown on threads, flour-dusted parvarda, snow-white nisholda and dozens of kinds of halva.
Dish · Nationwide
Dried fruit and nuts
Raisins, dried apricots, dried melon, almonds and pistachios cured by the Uzbek sun — the most colourful aisles of any bazaar and the easiest souvenir.
Dish · Nationwide
Uzbek melons
Folk breeding has produced more than 150 varieties of melon, the taste of the Uzbek summer — from early handalak to winter-keeping zard types.
Dish · Tashkent (city), Tashkent Region
Norin (naryn)
A Tashkent speciality of horse meat and thin noodles cut into fine shreds, served cold with kazy or in hot broth.
02 · 21 crafts
Crafts
Ceramics, ikat silk, gold embroidery and woodcarving — the workshops and their schools.
Craft · Fergana
Rishtan ceramics
The blue and turquoise pottery of Rishtan in the Fergana Valley, famed for its ishkor glaze made from plant ash and its local red clay.
Craft · Bukhara
Gijduvan ceramics
Pottery from Gijduvan near Bukhara, glazed in browns, yellows and greens — the best-known centre of the Bukhara–Samarkand school.
Craft · Fergana
Margilan atlas and adras
Margilan’s ikat silks: pure-silk atlas and half-silk adras. UNESCO recognises the town’s work to safeguard them as a model practice.
Craft · Bukhara
Bukhara gold embroidery
Embroidery in gold and silver thread on velvet and silk — the art of the Bukhara emirs’ court and still the city’s most precious craft.
Craft · Khorezm
Khiva woodcarving
The carved doors and columns of Itchan Kala: Khiva’s carvers never paint the wood, finishing it only with natural oil; the Juma Mosque alone has more than 200 columns.
Craft · Namangan
Chust knives
Hand-forged knives from Chust in Namangan Region: a blade with a slightly upturned tip, the maker’s stamped ‘signature’ and a decorated sheath.
Craft · Namangan
Chust doppi (skullcap)
The four-sided Chust skullcap, with white pepper-pod motifs on dark green, is the best-known emblem of Uzbek dress — and every oasis has its own doppi.
Craft · Samarkand
Samarkand paper
Paper made from mulberry bark — the finest writing material of the 9th–10th-century Islamic world, revived at Konigil at the end of the 20th century.
Craft · Bukhara
Suzani and Bukhara embroidery
Large hand-embroidered hangings called suzani; the Bukhara school is known for fine designs covering almost the whole cloth in reds and greens on a pale ground.
Craft · Navoiy
Nurata suzani
Embroideries from Nurata in Navoiy Region: realistic sprays of carnations, irises, cotton flowers and cherries on a pale ground around a central eight-pointed star.
Craft · Samarkand
Samarkand and Urgut suzani
Big red-and-black circles and rosettes on white define the Samarkand school; Urgut is a living embroidery centre and a favourite bazaar for suzani hunters.
Craft · Kashkadarya
Shahrisabz embroidery and the iroqi skullcap
Kashkadarya’s embroidery centre: densely worked suzanis on coloured cloth and cross-stitched iroqi skullcaps, the best of them made in Shahrisabz and Kitab.
Craft · Nationwide
Carpet weaving
Hand-knotted pile carpets and flat-woven palos in wool and silk — an ancient craft still alive in the workshops of Baysun, Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva.
Craft · Nationwide
Copper chasing (kandakorlik)
The art of engraving copper and brass: by the 19th century Bukhara, Samarkand, Khiva, Kokand, Karshi, Shahrisabz and Tashkent each had their own school.
Craft · Nationwide
Jewellery making (zargarlik)
The craft of gold and silver jewellery — tillaqosh diadems, earrings, bracelets and tumar amulets; the old centres are Karshi, Kokand, Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva.
Craft · Karakalpakstan
Karakalpak jewellery
The heavy silver jewellery of Karakalpak women: the bride’s breast ornament, nose-ring, moon-shaped brooches and tumar amulets against the evil eye.
Craft · Nationwide
Ganch carving
Carving in ganch, a mix of gypsum and clay — from the interiors of palaces and mosques to today’s wedding halls.
Craft · Nationwide
Tilework (koshinkorlik)
Glazed ceramic tiles, koshin, that sheathed the domes and portals of Timurid Samarkand and Bukhara, and later of Khiva.
Craft · Nationwide
Musical instrument making
Rubabs, dutars and tanburs carved from mulberry wood, bowed g‘ijjaks and kobyz — a craft that combines joinery, carving and inlay.
Craft · Karakalpakstan
The Karakalpak yurt and felt
A portable home of wooden lattice and felt that goes up in a few hours: the skills of building Karakalpak yurts joined UNESCO’s list in 2025.
Craft · Nationwide
Naqqoshlik, illumination and miniature painting
The arts of pattern design, gilded manuscript illumination and miniature painting; miniature (2020) and illumination (2023) are on UNESCO’s lists.
03 · 18 traditions
Traditions
Mahalla life, hospitality, weddings and rites — the old rules of everyday life.
Tradition · Nationwide
Hospitality and the dastarkhan
‘A guest ranks above your father’: the seat of honour, a dastarkhan that is never left bare, and table manners from breaking the bread to the closing blessing.
Tradition · Nationwide
Tea culture and the choyxona
Green tea ‘returned’ to the pot, a bowl filled only halfway, and the choyxona at the heart of every mahalla: the Uzbek day begins and ends with tea.
Tradition · Nationwide
The Uzbek wedding
From matchmaking to the bride’s bow: an Uzbek wedding is not a one-day party but a chain of rites that unites two families.
Tradition · Nationwide
Beshik to‘yi (cradle feast)
The rite in which a first-born baby is laid in its cradle for the first time; the cradle and gifts arrive from the mother’s family to the sound of karnay and surnay.
Tradition · Nationwide
The mahalla
‘A little town within the town’: the neighbourhood community gathered around its guzar, teahouse, mosque and elder — the basic unit of Uzbek life.
Tradition · Nationwide
Hashar
Unpaid communal work by neighbours: once used to dig canals and raise houses, today a clean-up of the mahalla before holidays.
Tradition · Nationwide
Navruz customs
The spring-equinox festival: hashar clean-ups and new clothes, sumalak stirred all night, ko‘k somsa, the ‘Boychechak’ song, kurash and kupkari.
Tradition · Bukhara
Shashmaqom and the maqom tradition
‘Six maqoms’ — a classical suite of instrumental and vocal music that took shape in Bukhara; joint UNESCO heritage of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan since 2008.
Tradition · Surkhandarya, Kashkadarya +2
Bakhshi art
Epic poems sung from memory to the dombra, kobyz or dutar — the performers of Alpamysh and Go‘ro‘g‘li; UNESCO-listed since 2021.
Tradition · Khorezm
Lazgi
Khorezm’s fiery folk melody and dance, evoking the sounds of nature, love and joy; UNESCO-listed since 2019.
Tradition · Fergana, Andijan +3
Askiya, the art of wit
A battle of wits born in the Fergana Valley and Tashkent: two or more askiyachi duel in wordplay on a set theme.
Tradition · Fergana, Andijan +1
Katta ashula (‘great song’)
The Fergana Valley’s ‘great song’: two to five unaccompanied singers, each holding a tray, sing in a soaring high register; UNESCO-listed since 2009.
Tradition · Nationwide
Kurash
Uzbekistan’s national wrestling: fought standing only, the aim is to throw the opponent onto his back; an international sport since 1998.
Tradition · Nationwide
Kupkari (ulak)
A horseback contest in which hundreds of riders battle for a goat carcass — in spring and autumn, above all at Navruz; its oldest forms survive in Baysun.
Tradition · Nationwide
National dress
Atlas and adras dresses, the chapan robe and sash, the doppi skullcap: rarely worn day to day, but Uzbek dress fills the streets at weddings, Eid and Navruz.
Tradition · Nationwide
Ramadan and iftar
The month of fasting: the pre-dawn saharlik and the evening iftar shared with neighbours and friends, with nisholda on the table; iftar traditions joined UNESCO’s list in 2023.
Tradition · Nationwide
Nasreddin Afandi anecdotes
Tales of the quick-witted, justice-loving folk hero Khoja Nasreddin; the tradition of telling them has been shared UNESCO heritage of seven countries since 2022.
Tradition · Surkhandarya
The cultural space of Boysun
Baysun in the Surkhandarya mountains, where rituals keep traces of shamanism, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism and Islam; a UNESCO Masterpiece since 2001.
04 · 10 festivals
Festivals
Navruz, Eid and folk fairs — when they happen and how to join in.
Festival · 1 January
New Year
1 January is a public holiday: Christmas trees, holiday fairs and fireworks in the cities, family feasts at home.
Festival · 14 January
Defenders of the Motherland Day
14 January marks the founding of Uzbekistan’s Armed Forces: a working day, but one on which soldiers and ‘defenders of the motherland’ are honoured nationwide.
Festival · 8 March
International Women’s Day (8 March)
8 March is a spring holiday honouring mothers, sisters and all women — flowers, gifts and concerts; a public holiday.
Festival · 21 March
Navruz holiday
21 March, the spring equinox and the nation’s favourite festival: a public holiday, with fairs and sumalak lasting several days.
Festival · 9 May
Day of Remembrance and Honour
9 May remembers those who died in the Second World War and honours living veterans; until 1999 it was called Victory Day.
Festival · 1 September
Independence Day
1 September is Uzbekistan’s main national holiday, marking the declaration of independence on 31 August 1991 — concerts and fireworks.
Festival · 1 October
Teachers’ and Mentors’ Day
1 October honours teachers: a public holiday since 1997, with celebrations in schools and universities, flowers and greetings.
Festival · 8 December
Constitution Day
8 December marks the adoption of Uzbekistan’s Constitution in 1992 and remains a public holiday after the new 2023 edition.
Festival · Nationwide
Ramazon hayiti (Eid al-Fitr)
The end of the fast, on the first day of Shawwal: festive prayers, family visits and a table of sweets; the date moves every year.
Festival · Nationwide
Qurbon hayiti (Eid al-Adha)
The Feast of Sacrifice on 10 Dhu al-Hijjah: festive prayers, sharing the sacrificial meat and hospitality; the date moves every year.