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 · 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.
Photo: Enric · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
The colour of ishkor
Rishtan, a small town between Kokand and Fergana, is the best-known centre of Uzbek ceramics. Its pottery is instantly recognisable by its blues and turquoises, which come from ishkor, a natural alkaline glaze made from the ash of particular plants. From local clay the potters throw platters, bowls, teacups, storage jars and jugs, painting them with plant ornament, ewers, birds, fish and motifs borrowed from architecture.
Specialists divide Uzbek ceramics into the Fergana, Bukhara–Samarkand, Khorezm and Tashkent schools, and Rishtan is the heart of the Fergana school.
Visiting a workshop
Pottery in Rishtan is usually a family trade, handed from father to son and master to apprentice. Several workshop-museums welcome visitors, who can watch throwing, painting and the kiln at work and buy directly from the potter. In 2023 ‘Ceramic arts in Uzbekistan’ was inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. Rishtan is less than an hour’s drive from Fergana or Kokand, so it slots easily into a valley itinerary.
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.