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 · 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.
The six maqoms
Shashmaqom (Persian for ‘six maqoms’) is a body of classical melodies and songs bound together by mode, melody, rhythmic cycle and form, developed over centuries in the cities of Mawarannahr, with Bukhara as its historical and spiritual centre. The six maqoms are Buzruk, Rost, Navo, Dugoh, Segoh and Iroq. A performance usually opens with an instrumental introduction, followed by the nasr, the main vocal section. The accompaniment is tanbur, dutar, sato, g‘ijjak, nay and doira, and the songs set ghazals by Hafez, Navoi, Fuzuli and other poets.
Notation records only the skeleton, so maqom is still taught orally from master to student. UNESCO proclaimed it a Masterpiece in 2003 and inscribed it on the Representative List in 2008 (Uzbekistan and Tajikistan).
Other traditions, and today
Besides Shashmaqom, Uzbekistan has the Khorezm maqoms and the Fergana–Tashkent maqom paths, each with its own performing school. Performers train at the Tashkent Conservatory and in maqom ensembles. An International Maqom Art Forum is held under UNESCO patronage; the third took place in Andijan on 23–26 June 2026. To hear maqom live, watch concert listings, and in Bukhara look out for evening folklore programmes.
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 · 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.