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.
Life in a dance
Lazgi is Khorezm’s folk melody and dance. Its movements mirror the sounds and phenomena of nature and feelings of love and happiness. The men’s version is martial and heroic, the women’s lyrical and playful. Lazgi starts slowly and gently and builds in speed, with musicians, singers and dancers moving in one rhythm, and the lyrics glorify love and kindness.
Dance scenes appear in the paintings of Tuproqqala, an archaeological site in ancient Khorezm, pointing to centuries-old roots. Dancers such as Tamara Khanum, Mukarrama Turgunbayeva and Gavhar Matyakubova carried Khorezm dance onto the world stage.
Where to see it
‘Khorazm dance, Lazgi’ was inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List in 2019. It lives in two forms: staged, at holidays and fairs, and improvised, at weddings and family gatherings — the tune is so infectious that onlookers end up dancing too. Since 2022 Khiva has hosted the biennial International Lazgi Dance Festival on 25–30 April (the third was held in 2026), and evening folklore shows in Itchan Kala often include lazgi.
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 · 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.