Xinjiang Uyghur Muqam Art (Turpan Muqam)

The Xinjiang Uyghur muqam art is the great Uyghur tradition of song-and-dance suites, divided by region into the Twelve Muqam, the Turpan Muqam, the Hami Muqam and the Dolan Muqam. The Turpan Muqam circulates in the Turpan basin and carries the musical legacy of ancient Gaochang and the Uyghur Khanate of Gaochang, a crystallisation of East-West musical exchange. In 2006 "Xinjiang Uyghur Muqam Art" entered the first national ICH list (item Ⅱ-71), with the Turpan Muqam a key component; the year before it had been proclaimed a UNESCO Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

The Turpan Muqam is marked by the principle that no song is sung without drum and no dance danced without music; the suite moves through sections including the mukaddimah, the sanam (the "mexrep"), and others, with players improvising to the mood of the dancers, accompanied by the dutar, rawap and dap (hand-drum), weaving solo, antiphonal and group dance into a single flow.

The Turpan Muqam records and confirms how different musical cultures met, spread and mingled at the Silk Road hub of Turpan, a living specimen for the study of Western Regions music history and Silk Road cultural exchange, with outstanding historical, artistic and scholarly value.