The workshop
Watch potters throw and paint pieces.
Ji-Elle — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Ji-Elle — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Dave Proffer — CC BY 2.0 · Ji-Elle — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Ekaterina Kvelidze — CC BY-SA 4.0
The Gijduvan Ceramics Centre is the home, workshop and museum of the Narzullaevs, the last hereditary dynasty of potters in Gijduvan, a town whose painted, glazed pottery is among the best known in Uzbekistan. Now in its seventh generation, the family traces its line to a master born in 1790; in May 2026 Uzbekistan registered Gijduvan ceramic products as a geographical indication. Its central figure, Ibodullo Narzullaev (1927–1987), orphaned as a boy, learned from a neighbouring master, Usmon Umarov, and in 1974 set up a workshop at home that kept a fading tradition alive. The family later turned his house into a centre in his name, and its museum of ceramics opened in 2000. Guests have included King Charles III, as Prince of Wales, and Hillary Clinton. Gijduvan ware favours warm browns, ochres and yellows against green and cobalt blue, with colours running into soft drops, and freely painted rosettes, arabesques and peacocks. In the workshop you watch potters throw and paint pieces; the museum shows the dynasty's work beside pottery from almost every old Uzbek ceramics centre. Suzani embroidery and carpet weaving have workshops too, and you can book a master class, a Gijduvan kebab lunch or a guest-house room. The centre stands in south-western Gijduvan, by the Bukhara–Samarkand highway, about 41 km north-east of central Bukhara as the crow flies and an hour's drive: a half-day trip or a stop on the way to Samarkand. About 2 km north-east lies the shrine of the 12th-century Sufi master Abdulkhaliq Gijduvani, with Ulugh Beg's madrasa of 1433 beside it.
Watch potters throw and paint pieces.
Pottery from Uzbekistan's old centres.
Throw a cup or paint a plate.
Kimsan Street, south-western Gijduvan, near the Bukhara–Samarkand road
Shared taxis to Gijduvan leave Bukhara when full and take 45 to 60 minutes, at about 15,000 to 25,000 som a seat, per a 2026 visitor guide; a private taxi there and back, with waiting time, costs about 150,000 to 250,000 som. The centre is on the Bukhara side of town near the main road, so ask to be dropped there, and set off early, as fewer cars run later in the day.
A 12th-century Sufi master born in Gijduvan, one of the Khwajagan, the line of teachers that led to the Naqshbandi order; he taught silent remembrance of God and set out principles of practice the order adopted. His shrine is a place of pilgrimage, so dress modestly, women cover their hair, and avoid Friday midday prayers.