Present booklet was developed by experts of Uzbekistan in line with provision of the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003) and the National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage that had been approved by the Republican Centre for Folk Art under the Ministry of Culture and Sports of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

The people inhabiting the present territory of Uzbekistan have their rich folklore like any nation on the earth. Dostons are special among the genres of folklore epics in terms of volume and variety of the means of expression.

The artistic world of the traditional culture of the peoples of Central Asia contains timeless and concrete historical content. At present stage of development of science there is a need to study the uniqueness of artistic creativity of the peoples of the region, it is important for an objective reconstruction of the overall picture of the evolution of the art of understanding the world.

Studying folk art means exploring not only people's life, rituals, psychology and traditions, but also their history, present and future, their worldviews and spiritual world. In fact, it is the folk art in which self-consciousness of nation, self-expression, perception of the world and its centuries-long way of life and ideas are reflected. Simply speaking, studying folk art means learning the people firsthand.