Colourful in Bukhara, Uzbekistan - crafts, arts and dance

Writer: Helena Bergström

Some buildings in Bukhara, Uzbekistan, are sand-coloured and almost colourless. In stark contrast, everything else is: the carpets, the silk scarves, the long flowing skirts, the embroidered jackets and the ceramic dishes. It was an explosion of colour that hit us ...

Colourful in Bukhara

We arrived in Bukhara by high-speed train, directly from The mythical Samarkand of the Silk Road. The meeting with Bukhara was a positive experience for everyone in the group - this historic Unesco city is also walkable and cosy.

You can read about our train journey to Bukhara and about the visit to the city here. What I would like to add is ... a story of our encounter with craft, art and dance. An encounter with the colours of Buchara!

Crafts and clothing

When visiting Bukhara, or any other city in Uzbekistan, you'll want to check out the crafts and clothes on sale. The colours and patterns are amazing. We who usually do very little shopping when travelling ... here we are shopping! After three trips to Uzbekistan, there is a lot of Uzbek in our wardrobes, we can promise ...

carpets

Carpets are a big deal in Uzbekistan (Samarkand and Bukhara were once stops along the Silk Road!) and this is the place to go if you want to buy a beautiful oriental carpet.

Do you want to be 100% sure that the rug is a genuine hand-knotted rug? Then you can go to the nicer shops (in Bukhara there are Bukhara Silk Carpets), or learn how to check the quality. As we understand it, you can test the authenticity by taking a loose thread from the back of the carpet and lighting it with a lighter for a few seconds.

If the fibre turns to black ash and smells burnt - then it is probably real wool or silk, i.e. probably a real carpet. If the fibre melts quickly into a hard lump and smells chemical or plastic - it's probably a machine-woven, modern industrial product.

At Bukhara Silk Carpets you can also watch the carpets being made, another colourful experience.

Textiles and clothing

It is not only carpets that are on sale in Bukhara, but all sorts of textile products: tablecloths, tote bags, shawls, dresses, headgear, open ”cardigans”, embroidered jackets and the long garment known as a chapan.

There are shops in many places in Bukhara, not least in the large shopping building in the centre of the old town. Everywhere you will find clothes and other textile products.

I have previously bought a jacket, cardigan and several shawls. This time it was a long ”chapan” that I am wearing here.

Prices in market stalls are often very reasonable, and haggling is possible. If you want to buy something more exclusive, you can visit a more upmarket shop, such as Bukhara Silk Carpets. Here it felt like tradition met modern fashion in the most exciting ways.

Ceramics and other crafts

There are also many other crafts, and perhaps the most distinctive is ceramics. We are love the colourful dishes, but you can also buy teapots, bowls and all sorts of other things.

Or why not a bread stamp (used when baking bread) or a chess set with beautiful pieces?

The traditional cot was also interesting to see...

Art

When we visited Bukhara in October 2025, there was an ”Art Biennale”, i.e. an art exhibition in the centre of the city. This is not always here, but it contributed with even more colour and artistic vibrations.

Dinner with entertainment

In addition to crafts, clothes and art, the evening entertainment, which we enjoyed for one evening, contributed lots of colour and impressions. A dinner was served in the courtyard of the madrassa Mr Nadir Devanbegi, for both local and foreign tourists.

Although it wasn't the food per se that provided the greatest satisfaction, it was also colourful. Just look at it!

Fashion show

The dinner entertainment consisted of Uzbek music (lovely, must be experienced!) together with a fashion show and a dance show. The fashion show reminded us a bit of what we had seen in the carpet shop - traditional colours and patterns with a modern twist. Very fun to see!

In

The dance show was if possible even more delicious. I had a bit of trouble capturing it all with my mobile phone camera - the dancers are moving! - but the memory is etched in my mind forever. The colours, the music ... Uzbekistan and Bukhara simply must be experienced!

Read more about our train journey around Uzbekistan

We visited Uzbekistan on a press trip, travelling around by train. The trip started in the capital Tashkent, to which we flew, and we then travelled around by high-speed train. Read more here: