Tradition · Khorezm
Lazgi
Khorezm’s fiery folk melody and dance, evoking the sounds of nature, love and joy; UNESCO-listed since 2019.
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.
Epics by heart
A bakhshi is a storyteller who sings folk epics (dostons) and songs from memory and hands them down the generations. The dostons draw on myths, legends and tales and celebrate patriotism, loyalty, love and friendship; the best known are Alpamysh and the Go‘ro‘g‘li cycle. Bakhshis are either performers or creators — the latter compose their own versions and even new epics and are called shoir, ‘poet’, like Ergash shoir, Fozil shoir and Po‘lkan shoir.
Bakhshis of Surkhandarya and Kashkadarya play the dombra and sing in a distinctive throaty voice; Khorezm bakhshis perform with dutar or tar, accompanied by g‘ijjak and bolamon; Karakalpak jyraus play the kobyz. Women bakhshis appeared in the 19th century.
UNESCO and the festival
Bakhshi art was inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List in 2021; it is taught in families and in bakhshi schools. The International Festival of Bakhshi Art is held every two years in a different region: Termez in 2019, Karakalpakstan in 2021, Syrdarya in 2023 and Khiva in 2025. You can hear bakhshis at weddings and family celebrations, Navruz fairs and folklore festivals, especially in the villages of Surkhandarya and Kashkadarya.
Sources (4)
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.
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.