Rishdan

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Rishdan is a town (pop est 22,580) in Fergana Province, in Uzbekistan, located about halfway between Kokand and Fergana. It is located at latitude 40°21'24N longitude 71°17'5E, and at an altitude of 471 meters.

Rishdan is one of the most famous and oldest centers of ceramics in Uzbekistan. Legend claims that the art is over 800 years old, passed down from generation to generation. A fine quality reddish-yellow clay deposit 1-1.5 meterｓ deep and 0.5-1.5 meters thick underlies almost the whole Rishdan area. The clay can be used without refinement or addition of other types of clay from other regions. Besides clay, the potters of Rishdan extracted various dyes, quartz sand, and fire-clay from the surrounding the mountains.

In the late 19th – early 20th centuries, almost all the population of Rishdan were potters. Its clay is suitable for making the whole variety of ceramic goods and the repertoire of ornamental patterns in the Rishdan ceramics is one of the richest. Today, over 2000 craftsmen use both traditional techniques and modern machinery to produce over 5 million items per year. The traditional design has a blue-green glaze, called “iskor”. In the 1960s, this technique had almost died out, but has now recovered, thanks to the efforts of the artisans themselves.