Probably the doll appeared on our land in prehistoric times. Archaeologists and historians count the appearance of the puppet in Central Asia from the ancient rite of honoring ancestors, when a son or brother of the deceased, wearing a mask, speaks on behalf of the ancestor.

This became a form of the masjara theater and formed the basis of the puppet theater.

The puppeteers' charter stated:  "The puppet appears, plays for a while and disappears, like a man who is born, lives in this world and goes into oblivion.  And along with it, the viewer lives a little puppet life, suffers, laughs, cries, and rejoices.

So you understand what an amazing idea people put into the doll? Here it is made, motionless and nameless, and only a man can bring it to life and make it talk, sing and dance. And then, when the performance ends, the doll dies, disappears, until the next time... This is a very Sufi image, a poetic one, which was used in the works of Alisher Navoi and Zahriddin Babur, and Omar Khayyam.  It is interesting that all folk puppeteers seldom followed the dogmas of dramaturgy; their performances were always very close to people, optimistic, full of sparkling humor and love. Very often they were punished and fined for their liberties, being a puppeteer has always been difficult and not particularly honorable - but apparently, to be a rebel and a creator and to create worlds - you need to have a special temperament. Maybe that's why a doll is an unusual toy. Especially one made with your own hands...

The love of dolls will never go away. Just dolls change. Become works of authorship, works of art, souvenirs, amulets.  Puppeteers can be hereditary, or they can just suddenly fall in love with the doll world and devote their entire lives to it.

Talking to dollmakers is a pleasure. Each doll has a name and a story. Made up or extracted from the depths of legend, not really important. It's always unique, and if it's repeated, it's fleshed out with a mass of regional details and invented digressions.

And some of the doll collectors seriously say that the doll world is the most real... It is the culture of the nation, its spirit, its mentality.

One can judge Uzbeks by their dolls. They are merry, funny, kind and very beautiful. With open faces, ready to smile at any moment. No crying dolls. No outright evil. Even the scariest villain will make you smile.

One of the most famous masters of Tashkent is Nasiba Akhmedova. Her amazing dolls are known by many, both in this country and abroad. Collections of dolls are gathered long and carefully, each of them is unique, has a name, nationality, character, and even destiny. The dolls have chiseled, amazingly beautiful, warm faces and hands. In the body of each doll, there is a whole system of locomotion, which allows the little people to change the tilt of the head and body, move arms and legs, to take very expressively, human-like emotional poses.