Uyghur Twelve Muqams

Muqams were often performed for royalty, but they also were held locally for village gatherings or other special events. These days, there are no festivals held in Xinjiang ( the northwestern province of China) without a muqam. The different regions of Xinjiang each have their own distinct format. In particular, the Kashgar region is famous for their Twelve Muqams, an ancient collection of musical compositions and lyrics that are still performed today. Known as the Mother of Music, these suites embody a concentranted reflection of the wisdom and talent of the Uyghur People in musical creation. The Twelve Muqams include 170 songs and dance tunes, and an addtional 72 instrumental pieces. The entire work takes over 24 hours to perfom from begining to end. Usually, just one muqam is performed over about two hours.
The Uyghurs are masters with heteromodal music, and in no place is that more apparent than during a muqam. Often a piece will begin in a heptatonic (Western) scale and end in a pentatonic (Chinese) scale. The way the notes slide in and out and shift scales is very different from western music, and makes the muqam extremely unique.
The instruments of the muqam are the instruments of the Uyghur people. The satar is usually featured, along with the tembor or dutar. The rawaps hold the rythm along with the daps. The ghijek and khushtar provide flowing melodies, and many other precussion, wind and stringed instruments fill out the gallery. Many of these instruments can be found at our store, The Camel's Back. In the poster, you can see a man in the center playing the satar, and the man to his left, playing an 11-string khushtar.

Uyghur Tembor

The Uyghur Tembor is the longest of the Uyghur lute family. At 140cm (4'7"), or longer, it is capable of producing some of the deepest and strongest tones in the Uyghur repertoire. It is a plucked instrument, with 5 strinThe Uyghur Tembor is the longest of the Uyghur lute family. At 140cm (4'7"), or longer, it is capable of producing some of the deepest and strongest tones in the Uyghur repertoire. It is a plucked instrument, with 5 strings, tuned A A D G G. The strings are meant to compliment each other, creating sympathetic sounds and giving the instrument a full, sonorous timbre.
It is one of the formost intruments used in Uyghur music, mostly used in the muqam or for accompanying a folksong. It enjoys a position close to the satar in importance within the sacred Twelve Muqams. The tembor is often found in the middle of a group of people, creating the stunning melody over which a story is being sung, or providing the rythmic beats for the dancers to step to.
Our tembor is 140cm, with five steel strings, and is crafted with wood from the mulberry tree. It has 30 frets along the neck, chromatically placed to help you find the notes. Many colorful decorations adorn the front, back and neck. These patterns and colors are rich in meaning with the Uyghur. The neck is held in the left hand, and the bowl rests at your feet. You pluck the upper melodic strings, and the others reverberate automatically. If you are familiar with lute playing, the tembor should not have a high learning curve.
The Uyghur historian Mojizi credits the people of the Dolan region of Xinjiang with creating the first lutes 6000 years ago. Through the centuries, the current tembor seems to have evolved from the ancient berbab instrument, another five stringed lute. The tembor, or berbab, even appears in the Buddhist cave paintings at Dunhuang, which date back to the 4th century CE. The tembor is a common name for a lute within the Persian world, but the Uyghur tembor is unique with its five strings and special decoration. gs, tuned A A D G G. The strings are meant to compliment each other, creating sympathetic sounds and giving the instrument a full, sonorous timbre.
It is one of the formost intruments used in Uyghur music, mostly used in the muqam or for accompanying a folksong. It enjoys a position close to the satar in importance within the sacred Twelve Muqams. The tembor is often found in the middle of a group of people, creating the stunning melody over which a story is being sung, or providing the rythmic beats for the dancers to step to.
Our tembor is 140cm, with five steel strings, and is crafted with wood from the mulberry tree. It has 30 frets along the neck, chromatically placed to help you find the notes. Many colorful decorations adorn the front, back and neck. These patterns and colors are rich in meaning with the Uyghur. The neck is held in the left hand, and the bowl rests at your feet. You pluck the upper melodic strings, and the others reverberate automatically. If you are familiar with lute playing, the tembor should not have a high learning curve.
The Uyghur historian Mojizi credits the people of the Dolan region of Xinjiang with creating the first lutes 6000 years ago. Through the centuries, the current tembor seems to have evolved from the ancient berbab instrument, another five stringed lute. The tembor, or berbab, even appears in the Buddhist cave paintings at Dunhuang, which date back to the 4th century CE. The tembor is a common name for a lute within the Persian world, but the Uyghur tembor is unique with its five strings and special decoration.

Uyghur instrument-Dutar

The Dutar is a long 2-stringed lute that is ubiquitous among the Uyghur. It's two silk strings are tuned a fourth or a fifth apart. There are 17 chromatic frets along the neck, and the entire instrument is about 130cm (4'3") long. It is carved from the wood of the mulberry tree, and decorated with colorful ornaments on both the front and back sides.
The dutar is plucked, usually focusing on the upper string while occasionally thumbing the lower string for contrast. It commonly accompanies a singer for traditional folk music, and can also be seen taking part in a muqam. Also, it is the only instrument that has traditionally been played by Uyghur women.
Walking into a home in the Uyghur region, it is almost certian that you will see a dutar hanging on a wall. It is used in the family to train young musicians, or to enjoy a song together. The songs the Uyghurs sing are very often stories of tragic love. They also speak of local histories or religious themes. Music is a very important part of Uyghur culture, as can be seen by their phenomenal muqams and the appearance of music in every part of society. The dutar is the instrument that many Uyghurs can play, allowing them to take part in their colletive histories, passing their culture from generation to generation.

UYGHUR CULTURE: Thin-wrapper steamed stuffed bun (Pitirmanta in Uyghur)

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Uyghur language

Geographic distribution
Uyghur is spoken by 8.5 million (2004) in China, mostly in the far western Xinjiang Autonomous Region. Uyghur is also spoken by 300,000 in Kazakhstan, and there are Uyghur-speaking communities in Afghanistan, Australia, Germany, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Turkey, United Kingdom, USA, and Uzbekistan.
History
Like the Uzbek language, the Uyghur language is descended from Chagatay Turkic common to Central Asian regions under the Chagatay and Timurid dyansties between 13 and 19th centuries. The Chagatay Turkic language in turn owed its origin in the Turkic dialects of the Qarluks and the Karakhanid state, centered around Kashgar. Contrary to some official histories, the Idikut states of Hami and Turpan, which would be properly labeled "Uyghur" during the Karakhanid and Mongol Yuan periods, spoke a dialect closer to Yugur than to Qarluk-Karakhanid. However these oases came under Chagatay and Timurid rule later in the 14th century, and slowly adopted the common language of the Muslim state when their own Buddhist culture eventually died out. Whereas colloquial Chagatay Turkic in Uzbekistan came under heavy modification by absorbing a Tajik Language substrate and a Tatar or Kazakh superstrate, the local variants in what is today Xinjiang came into contact with substratal local languages in Khotan, Qomul (Hami), Turpan and Gulja (Ili), notably the Indo-European substrates of Khotan and Turpan, and the distinctive Turkic language in Hami and Turpan closer to Yugur than Chagatay Turkic. Kashgar, being an important political and religious center of the Xinjiang Chagatayid states, gave rise to a Kashgarlik variety of the language with great currency in inter-oasis trade. However, since the 19th century Jadid Movement in Xinjiang, the Ili variety, one developed rather recently by Uyghur migrants from all oases since as late as 17th century, became the basis for modern standard Uyghur. This owed much to the strategic location of Ili being an entrepot between Xinjiang and Soviet, Uzbek and Afghan Central Asia, to the relative modern outlook of the Ililik intellegentsia, and to the homogeneous nature of the Ililik dialect as combining features from dialects of all Uyghur oases.
Official status
The Uyghurs are one of the 56 official nationalities in China, and Uyghur is an official language of Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.
Dialects
The dialects of Uyghur identified by the Ethnologue are Central Uyghur, Hotan (Hetian), and Lop (Luobu). There are two main languages in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region: Uyghur and Chinese. Chinese is not used widely in southern Xinjiang. About 80 newspapers and magazines are available in Uighur; five TV channels and ten publishers serve as the Uighur media.
All of the information and news provided has to be permitted by governmental offices.

Thin-wrapper steamed stuffed bun (Pitirmanta in Uyghur)

Thin-wrapper steamed stuffed bun (Pitirmanta in Uyghur)
It is a kind of steamed bun having mutton and onion as fillings. It is so-called because its wrapper is as thin as a piece of paper. First chop the mutton, beef and sheep's-tail fat into small cubes. Add chopped onions, salt and pepper to make the stuffing. Wrap the stuffing in dough, and put in bamboo steamer to cook for 20 minutes. The steamed buns are thin-skinned, with tender meat stuffing and very delicious. The Uygurs often eat these together with nang (crusty pancakes) and rice to be eaten with the hands.

Uyghur Foods Roast Dumplings

Roast Dumplings(samsa)
First chop the mutton, beef and sheep's-tail fat into small cubes. Add chopped onions, salt and pepper to make the stuffing. Wrap the stuffing in dough, and put in an oven to roast for 20 minutes. The dumplings are thin-skinned, with tender meat stuffing and very delicious. The Uyghurs often eat these together with nan(crusty pancakes) and rice to be eaten with the hands.