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 · 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.
Photo: Marat Nadjibaev · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Abr, the cloud pattern
Margilan was famous for silk as early as the 10th century and remains the historic heart of Uzbek silk weaving. The secret of atlas and adras is the abr (ikat) technique: before weaving, the warp threads are tied off according to the design (abrband) and dyed in several rounds. The edges of the pattern come out slightly blurred, like drifting clouds — abr means ‘cloud’.
Atlas is woven from pure silk and is smooth and glossy. Adras has a silk warp and a thicker cotton weft, which gives it fine horizontal ribs and a softer sheen.
Where to see and buy
Margilan’s workshops and factories show the whole process, from reeling cocoons to abrband, dyeing and weaving on the loom. A Crafts Development Centre was set up on local initiative in 2007, and in 2017 UNESCO added its work safeguarding atlas and adras techniques to the Register of Good Safeguarding Practices. In 2022 sericulture and traditional silk production were also inscribed. The 2026 ‘Margilan Atlas & Adras’ festival was scheduled for 17–19 September.
Photos
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 · 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.