MCLC: Uyghur Dastan training session

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Bruce Humes <xumushi at yahoo.com>
Subject: Uyghur Dastan training session
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Source: http://www.bruce-humes.com/?p=7028

Uyghur Dastan “Training Session” Held in Xinjiang’s Hami

Some 40 Uyghur singers of long rhymed tales that extol heroes in the
Turkic tradition—known as "dastan" in Uyghur and Persian, "destansı" in
Turkish and "dasitan" (达斯坦) in Chinese—gathered recently in Hami (哈密)
for 
an event that featured seminars and actual performances.

According to the report re-published on the "China Ethnic Literature
Network" (达斯坦奇), some forty "dasitanqi" took part, with younger ones
learning from masters such as 吾布力艾山·麦麦提, 居买·努力, and 买买提图合
提·亚森 who 
performed 《伊斯拉木碧格木》,《铁穆尔哈里法》and《霍佳尼亚孜阿吉》in the
Hami tradition.  
Some 30 hours of audio tracks were reportedly recorded.

Seminar topics included "Current Status of the Three Grand Epic Dasitan of
the Uighur, Kazakh, Mongolian and Kirghiz Peoples," and Formation and
"Categories of Uighur Folk Dasitan."

Billed as a “training session,” this event is part of recent efforts by
the authorities to document and preserve art forms of non-Han peoples in
the PRC that have been categorized by Unesco as an “intangible cultural
heritage.” Considered a dying art, traditional dasitan are largely
restricted to cities such as Hotan, Kashgar and Kezhou, as well as small
towns in the Hami region of Xinjiang. But they are still frequently
performed there in tea houses, bazaars and at "maja" (麻扎)---the burial
sites of revered Muslims---and during the traditional Uyghur "Meshrep" (麦西
来
甫).

Here’s Unesco’s description of a "Meshrep":

A complete "Meshrep" event includes a rich collection of traditions and
performance arts, such as music, dance, drama, folk arts, acrobatics, oral
literature, foodways and games. Uygur "muqam" is the most comprehensive
art form included in the event, integrating song, dance and entertainment.
"Meshrep" functions both as a ‘court’, where the host mediates conflicts
and ensures the preservation of moral standards, and as a ‘classroom’,
where people can learn about their traditional customs. "Meshrep" is
mainly transmitted and inherited by hosts who understand its customs and
cultural connotations, by the virtuoso performers who participate, and by
all the Uygur people who attend.