Uyghur Sanam
01 · Historical Records
Sainaim has a long history and a distant source, arising mainly in the oases of southern Xinjiang, where the people live by agriculture, the ethnic groups live in concentrated settlements and culture is highly developed. From the sixteenth century onward, under the guidance of music masters such as Kadirhan, Yarkandi and Amani Luohan (Naifusi), the Twelve Muqam, formed through the excavating, collecting and organizing of numerous folk musicians, absorbed the Sainaim that had long circulated among the folk, becoming the component known as qiong nayerman in each muqam, while Sainaim itself continued to circulate widely in its independent form.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Sainaim is the most widespread folk dance of the Uyghur people, transmitted broadly in the towns and villages north and south of the Tianshan Mountains. It is an indispensable part of Uyghur daily life: on every festive occasion, wedding ceremony or gathering of relatives and friends, the Uyghurs hold a Meshrep evening and enthusiastically dance Sainaim there to celebrate. Wubao Sainaim is one of the Uyghur traditional song-and-dance arts widely current in the Wubao area. It consists mainly of nine suites: Sainaim, Baladingya, Yarda Yiduo and Yana Deyeduo, Mailibili Sayartula, Bulibulikizi, Tuoerhayi, Baierdaierdashaqiqin Ayila, Tuolakajiding Mansanha and Tahedikaierda. These include love ballads, life ballads and various folk ballads expressing the joys and sorrows, partings and reunions of the people. Kaqun Sainaim is a traditional song and dance performed to the accompaniment of Uyghur ethnic instruments such as the frame drum, the dutar, the flute, the ajek, the rawap, the tanbur and the suona. It consists of nine Sainaim, including Kaqun Sainaim, Tajihan Sainaim, Wisali Sainaim, Tuyi Sainaim and Tage Sainaim, together with 51 tunes (melodies) and 150 richly worded kushak (poems). Its performance falls into four main sections: muqam, Sainaim, selik quxur (the closing section) and Meshrep (fifteen Meshreps of single tunes, among which are more than one hundred kushak). Recreational folk games are inserted during the intervals of the Meshrep performance to enliven the atmosphere.
Kaqun sanam and the Yarkand river
Performed along the Yarkand river in Shache county, it is a sung dance of nine sanam, fifty-one melodies and a hundred and fifty kushak poems.
Games between meshrep numbers
Its four parts end in a meshrep of fifteen melodies and over a hundred poems, with folk games played between items to warm the crowd.
Full performances at the muqam festival
From 2005 the inheritor Imin Ibra took part in Shache's annual muqam festival and toured inland representing county, prefecture and region.
The Kaqun ensemble
Its band of frame drum, lutes, flute, spike fiddle, rawap and shawm adjusts its volume and scoring as the sections change.
Imin Ibra's fifty pupils
Born in Shache in 1968, Imin Ibra has studied the form since 1980, perfected its core dance and vocal skills and now teaches more than fifty pupils.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Among the Sainaim transmitted around Shache, Kaqun Sainaim is the most renowned and is the representative of Uyghur song and dance in the Yarkand River basin; local performers say it consists of nine Sainaim, 51 tunes (melodies) and 150 kushak, accompanied by instruments such as the dap (frame drum), the dutar, the ajek and the rawap, and a full performance of it is given every year at the Muqam Arts Festival.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Uyghur Sanam · Sainaimu · Sainaimu · Sainaimu · Sainaimu · Sainaimu · Sainaimu.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Sainaim is a precious heritage of national culture; it fully reflects the Uyghur people's primitive religious beliefs, their local customs and the state of their music and dance, and it has high historical and cultural research value. At present, under the impact of outside culture, Uyghur Sainaim has few inheritors and urgently needs protection. Yimin Yibila (as recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): male, of Uyghur ethnicity, born in February 1968, a native of Shache County, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. From 1980 he studied Kaqun Sainaim under his seniors and actively learned from other Sainaim performers by exchange and practice; his instrumental and vocal skills gradually became complete, he mastered the core techniques of Sainaim dancing and singing, and his artistic attainments rank first in the locality. From 2005 he began taking part in the Muqam Arts Festival held every year by Shache County, and on many occasions went to inland China to perform Kaqun Sainaim as a folk artist representing the county, the prefecture and the autonomous region. Representative inheritor of the fifth-batch national-level intangible cultural heritage project Uyghur Sainaim. He actively carries out transmission activities for Kaqun Sainaim, and now has more than fifty disciples.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Aimaiti Simayi 03-0954
- Nasier Nusuer 04-1583
- Aimidouli Rehemisha 05-2283
- Yimin Yibila 05-2284
- Yasen Aisa 05-2285
- Abulimiti Xiahabi 05-2286
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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