Matouqin is a Mongolian stringed instrument, which was included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list in 2006, and the unique shape of the head and the thick and melodious sound make the matouqin the most representative instrument in the vast grassland.
Walking into the Intangible Cultural Heritage Poverty Alleviation Employment Workshop in Kailu County, Tongliao City, Inner Mongolia, the head of the workshop, Tesidligen, is hand-carving the head of the horse head. "With a standard piano head like this, a skilled craftsman takes a day's work to do well." Tesid ligen is the inheritor of Tongliao Municipal Chao'er production, at the age of 17 began to learn the production of musical instruments such as horse head qin with old artists, and the four hu and horse head qin he produced are well-known in the industry, and the orders are continuous. In 2016, Tesidligen founded a musical instrument factory, which has trained more than 20 horsehead violin makers.
Walking into the Intangible Cultural Heritage Poverty Alleviation Workshop, there are horses' head organs, chaoers, sihus of different sizes and colors, as well as wooden mini lele carts, yurts, stone mills, yogurt barrels and other handicrafts full of grassland style, and the craftsmanship is amazing. "This is a cultural tourism product we make to help villagers increase their income." Tesidligen picked up the mini horse head organ and the mini stone mill and said that the cultural tourism products created in the workshop were favored by the market, and with the continuous expansion of the scale of orders, the villagers' incomes have increased a lot. In the future, the workshop will also drive more farmers and herdsmen to join the production of cultural tourism products and achieve rural revitalization in the traditional culture of Shouwang.
Source: China Net Grassland Channel
Text/Photo: Zhang Qimin, Jia Xue, Song Yue
Editor: Su Wenyan