Museum of Traditional Musical Instruments, Dushanbe (must see)

The Gurminj Museum of Musical Instruments is a museum located in the center of Dushanbe, behind the Office of the Mayor on Bokhtar Street. There are about 100 musical instruments in the Museum collection mostly representing the Pamiri and Badakhshani musical tradition. The collection is dominated by string instruments, such as the tar, rubab, Pamiri rubab, tanbur, dutor, setor, qashqar, and ghizhak. There are also number of drums such as tabl, daf, and doyra.

The collection was gathered by Gurminj Zavkibekov during his trips to his native Kuhistoni-Badakhshon. There are number of other instruments that do not belong the to the Pamiri traditional instruments and some other casual items of antiquariat are for display at the museum. The museum also hosts a variety of cultural gatherings and events, many featuring the Tajik musical ensemble Shams and their soloist Nobovar Chanorov. Gurminj's son Iqbol Zavkibekov is the arts director of the band, which operates out of an apartment near the museum.