 | Uzbekistan Shopping | Tips 1 - 10 of 30 |  |
Popular Shopping | Other Shopping Tips | All Tips (30) Although you will see any number of carpets for sale in Uzbekistan, be aware that most come from Turkmenistan. Not that this is a reason not to buy, trade in carpets across the whole region is as old as carpet-making, pre-dating the borders of modern politics by centuries. If you want to be sure the carpet you buy is truly an Uzbek one, visit the UNESCO-sponsored silk carpet workshops in Bukhara and Khiva or buy from a dealer elsewhere who sells these carpets. At the workshop in Khiva you can see the copper pots of dye bubbling away as well as the women working at the looms.
Traditional knotted rugs and carpets; kilims, sumacs and other flatweaves and items such as camel bags are all available. Small rugs will fold neatly inro a suitcase, larger pieces may need to be shipped. Laws are strict about exporting anything with real age or particular cultural value.
Price always depends on quality and your bargaining powers. A small silk rug will cost about $200, a kilim or sumac may be had for as little as $50. Whatever you pay, if you really like the rug and have paid a price you can afford, you can be sure you have value for your money and a wonderful memory that will last a lifetime.
leyle Leave a Comment Theme: Home Furnishing
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Suzane is the name given nowadays to all the wonderful embroideries you will find in Uzbekistan. For those interested -a suzane is a large wall hanging, a nimsuzane is a small wall hanging, a tuskiz hangs in a yurt and a ruijo is spread on the bridal bed. The list of names goes on - but suzane will do. Whether you buy a full suzane or just a single cushion cover, you are buying a piece of a wonderful tradition.
Patterns and styles vary from place to place, in Bukhara the background is always cream (though these days some are tea-dipped to give a attractive muted tone to the colours - that is quite acceptable), in others the backgrounds may be coloured.
$5 -$10 for a cushion cover -$200 or more for a really fine suzane -the choice is yours. I found a lovely old piece worked on velvet and made into a small bag for just $5 in Shakhrisabz - quite unique. Leave a Comment Theme: Home Furnishing
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If there is one thing to buy that most typifies Uzbek culture, it must be a hat. Whether you choose a simple black and white doppi or an elaborately embroidered and beaded young girl's cap, a woolly sheepskin telpek or a Turkoman fantasy like the silver one here with the pheasant feathers, pay a dollar or two in a market or twenty or more for something beautiful and unique, it is the hats they wear that mark the identity and status of Central Asian men and women in the most unmistakeable way.
When I travel, I buy my bookclub friends a gift -the game is to spend no more than $1 each. In Shakrisabz I found the hats that were $3 in Bukhara (too expensive for me, but a fair price our guide said) for $1. The girl selling them was delighted when I bought 10 and my friends were delighted with their hats. Win win.
leyle Leave a Comment Theme: Local Craft
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Hand formed ceramics have a long tradition in Uzbekistan, not only the wonderful glazed tiles that adorn the great mosques and madrassas but also pots, bowls, plates and vessels of every shape and size. Even the "tuvaks' - the little peepot placed beneath the baby's cradles - are made by hand still and every potter has a neat little sideline producing these essential items.
Many forms and patterns are unique to a particular region but you will find these blue, white and green wares all over the country (and in other parts of Central Asia). Once made in small potteries in and around the town of Rishtan in the Fergana Valley, it all now comes from a central factory but much of it is still made by hand as it has been for hundreds of years.
A couple of dollars will buy a small tea bowl, the prices go up from there.
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Lots of options for the serious spice shopper. The bazaars of course are full of the brilliant colours and smells of spice -huge sacks of then in a sweeping curve under the domed roof of the covered bazaar (the Eski Juva) in Tashkent, similar long rows in markets and bazaars everywhere else in the country or a specialist shop in the Money-changer's Bazaar in Bukhara, where you will be offered delicious spiced tea as well. Here you can also buy delightful little gourd spice jars and the wooden handled metal stamps that are used to make the designs that are a feature of Uzbek bread.
Some unusual and subtle use of spices, herbs and spices makes Uzbek food very tasty without being overwhelmingly spicy or hot. Cumin, coriander, red and black pepper are the main spices used, though many others, such as fenugreek, star anise, cinnamon and many more all feature. Dill, parsly, fresh coriander and basil are the some of the herbs used, dill being a particular favourite. Dried fruits and berries all have their place while sesame and nigella are just two of the seeds that are often used. Fresh herbs apart, all of these and many more are available from the spice merchants, fresh as fresh and cheap as cheap. Leave a Comment Theme: Food and Drink
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Once there were five, now there's just three. The famous trading domes of Bukhara covered the junctions of the roads that led through the busy mercantile section of the city. Each was dedicated to a particular trade, the one's that remain are the Jeweller's bazaar, the Cap-maker's and the Money-changer's. None of them is exclusively devoted to any one thing these days, rather most of the little shops inside and the stalls that are set up all around sell the same mixture of suzanes and silk scarves, bags and jewellery, carpets and hats that make up the stock of decorative items that make Uzbekistan a shopper's delight.
There's something for everyone under the domes. From a carpet big enough to cover a whole room to a tiny little shoulder bag made from a scrap of an old kilim, enough jewellery to fill Aladdin's cave, silk scarves and suzanes, spices and bronze jugs, ceramics and tea - the problem comes in choosing.
leyle
That's up to you. Prices are fairly set, though a little bargaining is in order. Don't insult the vendor by trying to get something for a ridiculous sum.
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Uzbek silks in wonderful Ikat hand weaves are absolutely beautiful. Expensive too - this is a highly sophisticated weaving process. For those adventurous enough to wear them, the coats and dresses made from this silk make a real impact. For the more conservative, lovely scarves make an more wearable, and much cheaper, alternative.
I'm still dreaming of a glorious piece of silk I saw in Samarkand, about one and a half metres square with a fabulous Ikat pattern - first price $500 - even 5th price would have been beyond my budget, but what a piece!
This has become a bit of a mantra - what you pay is up to you -a few dollars for a machine-made scarf or hundreds for something like my gorgeous square.
leyle Leave a Comment Theme: Local Craft
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The austere student cells of Samarkand's old madrassas are mostly now crowded with a riot of colour as they find a new purpose as the small shops selling the gorgeous handicrafts of the country. The beautiful tilework on the arches of the courtyards combine with the variety and vibrancy of the goods for sale both inside and outside the shops to form a wonderful tapestry of colour around the serene space of the the courts themselves with their stone-flagged paving, trees and grapevines. Western-style shopping malls with their bright lights and piped music don't have a fraction of the atmosphere and charm of these places.
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The Museum of the Blacksmith's Art in Bukhara has a fascinating, if somewhat lethal, display of knives and blades for show and sale. Generations of the same family have worked in this forge.
Scissors in the shape of storks come in all sizes with blades so sharp they will cut through almost anything. If you buy them, or one of the very impressive knives, be sure to pack them in your hold luggage.
Other metal work for sale includes ewers and jugs as well as large trays and plates.
leyle Leave a Comment Theme: Home Furnishing
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If Bukhara's domes and Samarkand's madrassas cater mostly for tourists, Uzbekistan's wonderful bazaars make no such concessions. These are the places that the local people shop in every day for their food, their household needs and most of their clothes. The huge covered market halls, open stalls in the plazas and the streets all around buzz with activity and life. These are the places to come for the sounds, the smells and the tastes of daily life.
Spices, dried fruit and nuts, fabulous fresh fruit and bread are all great buys here, some for immediate consumption, some to take home with you.
leyle Leave a Comment Theme: Other
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on August 10, 2005
