From Sacred City to Managed Heritage: Cultural Continuity and Social Transformation in Bukhara, Uzbekistan

Abstract

This paper explores whether Bukhara has been able to strike a balance between cultural continuity and social change in the transition that the city has made from being a sacred Islamic outpost to a moderated heritage site. Giving material to study from both scholarly literature and the application of the interdisciplinary approach, the analysis shows how Bukhara's transformation is one of resilience and vulnerability. The city preserves its cultural continuity through the mahalla system, religious institutions, and vernacular architecture and is heavily threatened by tourism commodification and a lack of legal frameworks and pressures by urban modernization. Through the comparative analysis with other Silk Road cities and the engagement with heritage theory, the current article shows that although Bukhara has managed to maintain many elements of its sacred identity, the sustainable heritage management needs to be more inclusive in governance, to be coupled with an enhanced involvement of the community and to employ policies that are sensitive in context and to the tangible and intangible heritage aspects.