In Uzbekistan the Dunghans in general reside in "Dunghan-makhallya" of "Karasuv" shirkats in Urta-chirchik district, Tashkent province. They speak the Shensii dialect of the Chinese language and confess Islam of Sunnite persuasion.
The Dunghans are the native farmers, wonderful gardeners and rice-growers. The Dunghans' experience of growing garden crops was disseminated all around the country. Exactly through the gardening this nation for a long time closely communicated with other nations, and this to a certain extent has leveled out ethnic differences in traditional culture. To revive this culture and not only to preserve but also to develop the native language - these are the main reasons for which the Dunghan Cultural Center was established in February of 1990 in Tashkent.
The Center works on several programs. For example, it started teaching the native language, every year orga-nizes excursions to museums, parks of Tashkent and Samarkand, collective visiting of concerts, in the coming years the Center plans to establish museum of Dunghan national culture. Different displays and exhibits have been already collected for the museum: clothes, jewelry, instruments of labor, household goods. In 1999 the Center set up the ensemble "Chinme" (sprout) which has mainly Dunghan folklore and dances in its repertoire.