Tamara Khanum Memorial Museum

The Tamara Khanum Memorial Museum was opened in honor of the famous Uzbek dancer and actress. It all started with an ordinary exhibition of the artist's costumes, and in 1994 it was decided to establish a museum in the apartment that served as the artist's home until the last days of her life. It is located in the center of the Uzbek capital.

Tamara was not just a dancer, but a real reformer of the traditional Uzbek dance style. Her research in the fields of song and dance folklore helped create the genre of miniature song and dance. The artist's repertoire includes more than half a thousand songs in more than eighty languages, numbers with national dances and other choreographic performances.

During Tamara Khanum's lifetime, an exhibition of her concert outfits was opened, which marked the beginning of the creation of the memorial museum of the People's Artist of the USSR. These very outfits make up the majority of the museum's collection. The costumes traveled with Tamara on her tours, and were also presented as gifts by numerous fans of the outstanding woman's talents.

The exhibition features unique gifts and gifts to the actress from Mao Zedong and Jawaharlal Nehru himself. Of course, there are national outfits from many countries around the world, from Indonesia to Lithuania. During the tour, you can learn that Tamara Khanum had a tradition — upon arrival in a new country, the dancer offered to dance a number with a national dance in a traditional costume. That's how her collection got bigger and bigger. Another exclusive costume is considered to be the former costume of one of the wives of the Emir of Bukhara.

The museum is rich in photographic reports of the actress' performances, which capture the moments spent on and behind the stage. Thanks to the collected documentary photographs, one can clearly imagine the atmosphere prevailing in theatrical circles at that time. Naturally, the museum houses collections of posters and programs from numerous performances of the artist, both at home and on tour. On each photo you can find an explanatory note in three languages.

The pride of the museum can safely be called the preserved audio recordings of the actress's songs, Tamara Khanum's personal diaries and memoirs, handwritten texts of works that were never published, correspondence with various prominent people of that time.

The interior of the apartment itself will be interesting. The creators of the museum left everything as it was under the actress, preserving unique household items. It seems that Tamara Khanum just went into another room and will now come back. One of the halls is regularly used to display new collections of national costumes.

The museum underwent reconstruction and modernization several years ago. The amount for the restoration of valuable stage outfits and the renewal of the photo collection was allocated by the United States Ambassador's Foundation, which advocated the preservation of cultural heritage.