In 2021, Mamut started to sell instruments on short-video platforms. "Last year, I sold more than 100 musical instruments via livestreaming and earned more than 50,000 yuan (about 7,500 US dollars)," he said.
In order to protect and carry forward the instrument-making techniques, authorities established a workshop for the craftsmen in Towanki-ogusak in 1999.
With financial support from governments at all levels, the inheritors of intangible cultural heritage and the makers of musical instruments in the workshop receive an annual subsidy of 10,000 to 40,000 yuan. Now, the village produces more than 50 kinds of traditional instruments, including almost all of those in the Uygur culture.
In recent years, schools nearby Towanki-ogusak have organized extracurricular practical classes in the village, allowing students to observe the production process for traditional musical instruments and the skills used in playing them.
"If children are nurtured at an early age, they can pass on these excellent cultural traditions from generation to generation," said Dong.
