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Shopping in Samarkand

19 stores · Uzbekistan

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Samarkand's craft shopping offers several different kinds of purchase. A garment needs to fit the person who will wear it. A carpet needs to suit a room, while handmade paper can become a smaller gift or something to use yourself. The stops below connect those choices to a gallery, a carpet workshop and a paper mill. Choose according to the material you want to understand rather than assuming that every craft shop sells the same souvenirs.

Happy Bird Gallery describes clothing made with traditional fabrics and vintage natural materials. Its collections use handwork such as embroidery and quilting, with everyday clothing alongside more elaborate collection pieces. The gallery dates its opening to June 2006 and also presents accessories and work by Central Asian artistsS1.

Samarkand–Bukhara Silk Carpets Factory describes a family-run workshop and showroom on Hujum Street. Its website explains hand weaving and the use of natural dyes, and presents carpets alongside kilims and suzani textilesS2. These are different forms of textile work, so start by asking what the particular piece is and how it was made.

Konigil Meros Paper Factory, in the village of Konigil outside Samarkand, makes paper by hand. Uzbekistan's official tourism page describes the Mukhtarov brothers' revival of the process and a factory shop selling paper products. Its examples include postcards and notebooks, while the site also explains the paper's use in restoring manuscriptsS3.

City shops · Buyer’s guide · Route

Sources

Stores in Samarkand

Complete A–Z index · 19 stores