Tashkent is the country's most expensive city for a funeral, and the gap with the regions is visible. Three reasons: capital tariffs, a paid hearse in nearly every case, and expensive banquet halls that in the capital increasingly replace the traditional toykhana. Below is a line-by-line breakdown with both official and real figures.
Official tariffs. The order approved by the Tashkent mayor on 8 August 2023 applies uniformly across all city and regional cemeteries. Grave digging for Muslims — 60,000–150,000 UZS (small and large); for other faiths — 60,000–120,000. Coffin manufacture — 220,000 to 1,560,000 depending on model. These figures are required to be posted visibly at the cemetery itself.
What people actually pay. Gravediggers in Tashkent receive 300,000–700,000 UZS, rising to a million in winter when the ground is frozen. The gap between tariff and practice is the most common source of the feeling of being cheated. Knowing both numbers gives you a reference point — not leverage over men digging a grave by hand in January.
The morgue and the first intermediary. This is where most money is lost. Morgue orderlies often act as unofficial intermediaries offering a «turnkey» package with a 40–60% markup. Practical advice: take only the death certificate and the body release time from the morgue, then make every other decision two hours later after consulting the mahalla. Two hours change nothing organisationally and change the estimate substantially.
Transport. A hearse in Tashkent runs 500,000–1,500,000 UZS per working day, depending on distance: the lower end for Domabad or Chigatay from the centre, the upper end for cemeteries out in the region. If the body travels to a family cemetery in the provinces, budget a separate intercity transfer.
Cemeteries and the plot. Tashkent has 74 cemeteries, 16 closed to new burials. Domabad is the largest Muslim one, around 450,000 graves. Chigatay is the historic Muslim cemetery. Botkin is Christian and strictly requires documentary proof of an existing family grave. Textile and Armenian cemeteries serve their communities. Land is free by law, but unofficial «reservation» at a sought-after cemetery costs $200–1,000.
The rites. Muslim: ghusl about 800,000 UZS with a hired specialist, kafan 150,000–600,000, prayer mats from 15,000 in bulk, caps and scarves at 3,000. Christian: coffin from 1,200,000 standard, 3,000,000–3,500,000 mid-range, up to 14,900,000 exclusive; washing and dressing about 800,000; clothing about 350,000; wooden cross 100,000, cemetery cross 500,000–3,000,000.