Uzbekistan’s doira (also called doyra) is among the oldest documented percussion instruments in Central Asia — terracotta figures from the ancient city of Nisa, dated to the 2nd century BCE, depict women playing what’s recognizably the same drum. The doira sits at the rhythmic center of shashmaqom, the six-maqom courtly classical suite tradition formalized in 16th-century Bukhara and Samarkand and recognized by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage. As in most frame drum traditions, the doira began as a women’s instrument; by the late 18th century men had become its dominant performers, and the instrument itself grew smaller and heavier to suit a different style of play. See the Doira page below.