Musical heritage resounds in Xinjiang village

Sitting in the shade of the grape trellises, 70-year-old Rehman Abdulla wields his chisel knife, expertly carving the hard mulberry wood into the body of a dutar.

"I have been making traditional musical instruments for more than 60 years, since I was a kid," said the Uygur man, who has inherited his skills from a long line of traditional instrument makers.

His home village of Towanki-ogusak in Kashgar prefecture, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, is widely known for manufacturing and selling traditional instruments.

"Musical-instrument fabrication has persisted in the village for more than 150 years," said Dong Yantao, Party chief of the village.

"There are more than 70 households in the village that are mainly engaged in making traditional musical instruments, accounting for one tenth of the total," added Dong.

Rehman Abdulla has been teaching the craft to more than 50 people, including his son, Mamut Rehman.

"I can make four kinds of musical instrument, such as the dutar and rewap, while my father can make 27," said Mamut.

In 2021, Mamut started to sell instruments on short-video platforms. "Last year, I sold more than 100 musical instruments via livestreaming and earned more than 50,000 yuan (about $7,500)," he said.