Uzbek Aixilaiyelai
01 · Historical Records
The Uzbek people have an excellent music-and-dance tradition; as early as the historical period from the Wei, Jin and the Northern and Southern dynasties to the Sui and Tang, the “Kangguo music” from what is now Samarkand, the “Anguo music” from Bukhara and the “Shiguo music and dance” from Tashkent travelled east together with other music and dance of the Western Regions such as “Kucha music”, “Shule music” and “Gaochang music”, exerting a major influence on the development of the music-and-dance culture of the Han people of the Central Plains and of East and South-East Asia.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Uzbek eshira and yele are current mainly in Kashgar city, Shache city and Yecheng county of Kashgar prefecture, and in Yining city of the Ili Kazakh autonomous prefecture, in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. Uzbek folk songs are the foundation of its folk music and even of its classical music and primitive religious ritual music, while eshira and yele are in turn important representatives of Uzbek folk song. Eshira is of great length, strictly structured and wide in range, and its melody combines depth with impassioned uplift. It is sung mainly at mass entertainments such as the “odurush”, and individual pieces may also be used to accompany dancing. Yele is comparatively short, its metre and rhythm rich in variation and its tune light and lively; it is sung and played mainly to accompany the popular self-amusement dancing at festive occasions of the seasonal calendar and of the rites of life.
Eshira
One of the important representatives of Uzbek folk song, of great length, strictly structured and wide in range, its melody combining depth with impassioned uplift.
Yele
One of the important representatives of Uzbek folk song, comparatively short, its metre and rhythm rich in variation and its tune light and lively.
Nowruz and wedding performances
The inheritor has long performed at various mass activities such as the Nowruz festival, weddings and family gatherings, and has taken part many times in national literary and art activities.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Uzbek eshira and yele circulate in Kashgar city, Shache city and Yecheng county of Kashgar prefecture, and in Yining city of the Ili Kazakh autonomous prefecture; they are performed mostly at mass occasions such as the Nowruz festival, weddings and family gatherings, with singers accompanying themselves on the dutar, rawap and ajek. The inheritors in the Kashgar and Shache area can sing both the eshira of local poets and traditional Central Asian eshira, and are also able to sing yele folk songs.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Uzbek Aixilaiyelai · Uzbek Aixilaiyelai.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Eshira and yele complement one another and enhance each other; together they enrich the spiritual world of the people where they circulate, refine their sensibilities and form an important part of the social life of the Uzbeks, expressing the cultural identity of the Uzbek people and thus becoming one of the cultural marks distinguishing this people from others; they are of extremely high reference value for the study of the history of the music-and-dance development of the Chinese nation, the history of cultural exchange between Eastern and Western music, and the social and historical situation of the Uzbek people. For various reasons eshira and yele are now on the verge of being lost, and measures for their protection are urgently needed. Paizila Yisaijiang (associated bearer, as recorded in the official archive): After many years of study, able to sing in full a number of yele folk songs, traditional Central Asian eshira and the eshira songs of local poets, and skilled on the dutar, rawap and ajek and other instruments; has collected, collated and edited a number of Uzbek folk songs, more than a hundred pages of folk proverbs and other materials, has joined with others in editing and publishing the Folkayti Poetry Collection, and has published the results of relevant research. Has long performed at various mass activities such as the Nowruz festival, weddings and family gatherings, and has taken part many times in national literary and art activities. Male, Uzbek, born in May 1955, died in November 2017, a native of Shache county, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. He is a representative inheritor of the Uzbek eshira and yele, a national-level intangible cultural heritage item of the third batch.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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