Kazakhstan · Instrument Making / Wood Carving
Домбыра (Dombra)
The dombra (Домбыра) is the primary musical instrument of Kazakh culture — a two-string fretted lute carved from a single piece of wood with a teardrop body and a long straight neck. The dombra is the instrument of the akyns (Kazakh bards) who transmit the Kazakh oral epic tradition. Like the Kyrgyz komuz (CRAFT-0702), the dombra soundboard is calibrated by tap testing — but the dombra uses a two-tap comparison system: the soundboard is tapped at center and at edge, and the two tones must be exactly one tone apart (not octave) — 'the center and the edge must speak to each other but not the same word.'
Risk level: Critically Endangered · UNESCO Representative List (2021) — Kazakh Dombra; Kazakhstan national ICH list
Tüs kiiz (Түс кіиз) is the Kazakh bridal felt wall hanging — the honor wall decoration of the Kazakh yurt, placed behind the bridal couple during wedding ceremony.
Keste (Кесте) is the primary Kazakh embroidery tradition — a counted cross-stitch system that produces the geometric borders and panels decorating Kazakh felt objects, wall hangings, and dress elements.
Alka (Алқа — earring/ornament) refers to the Kazakh silver jewelry tradition — particularly the elaborate drop earrings that are the primary women's silver ornament.
The tanning, shaping, and embossed decoration of leather into the full range of functional objects central to traditional Kazakh nomadic pastoral life — most distinctively the torsyk, a sewn leather flask specifically used for carrying and…
The making of the kobyz (qyl-qobyz) — an ancient two-stringed, horsehair-strung bowed instrument considered one of the oldest bowed instruments in Central Asia, with archaeological finds from the Kazakh Altai dated to the 6th–7th centuries…
Tekemets (Текемет) is the Kazakh pressed felt tradition — producing floor coverings and wall panels with geometric patterns formed during the felting process rather than cut into finished felt.
The making of the Galician bagpipe (gaita galega) — the defining musical instrument of Galician identity, distinct from the Scottish and Irish bagpipes in its use of a single drone (ronco) instead of multiple drones and its specific…
The single-log carving of monumental, animal-form slit gongs by the Banda people, the largest single ethnic group in the Central African Republic, historically owned by chiefs across a shared cultural zone spanning north-central Congo and…
The hand-building of violins, other bowed and plucked string instruments, and brass and woodwind instruments in the Vogtland region of Saxony, centered on Markneukirchen, Klingenthal, and Schönbach — founded in the 1650s when twelve violin…
The making of the khaen — the free-reed bamboo mouth organ that is the national instrument of Laos and, according to UNESCO's 2017 inscription citation, an integral part of Lao life promoting family and social cohesion.
Paraguay's national instrument — a lightweight, leverless diatonic harp of 32 to 46 nylon or gut strings, built from cedar, pine, or tropical hardwood, standing roughly 4.5 to 5 feet tall and weighing 8 to 10 pounds — descends from harps…
The building of a fretted, hourglass-shaped lap zither played flat across the knees, adapted in the early 19th-century Appalachian Mountains from European scheitholt, langspil, and épinette des Vosges instrument traditions brought by…