Central Asia’s living knowledge enters UNESCO’s intangible heritage lists
On a cold morning in Chimbay, a small town in the Karakalpakstan region of northwestern Uzbekistan, an elderly craftsman bends over a half-finished wooden frame.
His hands move slowly but with certainty: shaping, bending, adjusting. He built a yurt in the same way as his father and grandfather before him.
A few blocks away, a young apprentice holds a horsehair bow against an unfinished two-stringed instrument, trying to make a sound that his teacher describes as “old as the steppe.”
These scenes reflect a wider recognition across Central Asia. At the 20th session of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee in New Delhi, the kobyz bowed instrument and yurt, jointly proposed by Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, were included in the UNESCO intangible cultural heritage lists.
UNESCO has warned that parts of this heritage are “seriously threatened due to the reduction in the number of experienced masters”.
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The kobyz: A sound shaped by the centuries
The kobyz is one of the earliest bowed instruments in the Turkic world, whose authors date back to the 5th-8th centuries CE.
Its spoon-shaped wooden body, arched handle, and camel-hide diaphragm produce a resonant, harmonic-rich sound rooted in shamanic traditions. Among the Turkic peoples, the word qobuz once meant “musical instrument,” demonstrating its cultural centrality.
In Kazakhstan, the kobyz tradition is particularly strong in regions such as Kyzylorda and Mangystau, where generations of storytellers and musicians known as kyuishi have maintained the instrument’s repertoire.
In Kyrgyzstan, elements of the tradition survive in the musical heritage of the Issyk-Kul and Naryn regions, where bowed instruments related to the kobyz are still performed in epic stories.
First step in manufacturing Kobuz – Foundation for the Development of Art and Culture of Uzbekistan
Making a kobyz requires specialized skills, choosing the right tree, carving the body from a single piece and preparing the horsehair for the strings and bow, knowledge traditionally passed down within families.
Today, the kobyz survives in Karakalpakstan mainly thanks to the zhyrau, epic storytellers who accompany their narration with the instrument. But the tradition is rapidly declining.
Ermek Bayniyazov, a zhyrau from a village near Nukus, notes how quickly the craft disappears. “When I was young, you could walk into any village and someone knew how to tune or repair a kobyz. Now I can count the true masters on one hand. If one of them stops working, the skills disappear with them.”
Traditional workshop. Modeling on the surface of Kobuz – Foundation for the Development of Art and Culture of Uzbekistan
He adds: “A kobyz is not like a guitar you can buy in a store. The body has to be carved from a single block. The horsehair has to be washed, dried and twisted in a certain way. Even choosing the right tree used to be an art. Today there are musicians who don’t know how the instrument is constructed, and that is a warning sign for the future.”
The yurt: a house that has shaped nomadic life
If the kobyz is the voice of the steppe, the yurt is its architecture. For the nomadic and semi-nomadic peoples of Central Asia, the Karakalpaks, Kazakhs and Kyrgyz, the yurt remained the main form of housing until the end of the 19th century. In the 1930s and 1940s, it survived mainly among shepherds during seasonal migrations.
Historically, the yurt had deep social significance. A young man preparing for marriage had to acquire one; Among the Karluk and Kipchak groups (the early Turkic tribes who once dominated much of Central Asia), parents did not give their daughters in marriage to someone who did not own a yurt.
Wedding yurts were covered in white felt, while everyday ones – kara ui – were made from a darker material.
A group of traditional yurts in the sandy landscape of the Kyzylkum desert in Uzbekistan -Euronews
Throughout the region, the yurt symbolized continuity and connection with the land. For many communities, its interior represented a microcosm of order, while the world beyond its felt walls formed the larger universe.
In Uzbekistan, yurts are still part of the cultural life of Karakalpakstan, Surkhandarya, Navoi and other regions. They are still assembled in summer near water or trees, with felt panels raised to allow air circulation.
Chimbay remains one of the few centers of traditional crafts, where workshops preserve yurt-making techniques alongside embroidery workshops producing suzani and other textiles. Artisans rarely use the word “heritage”, but their skills underpin what UNESCO aims to safeguard.
Today, yurts function less as everyday homes and more as cultural spaces, including places where visitors seek to experience nomadic traditions. Vohid Pirmatov, owner of the “Kyzylkum Safari” yurts in Navoi, tells Euronews that the authentic felt structures offer a rare link to the past.
“Our yurts are made from natural felt, the same material traditionally used in nomadic homes. The walls breathe, air passes through, keeping the interior cool.”
He sees growing interest from travelers: “We see a lot of tourists, especially from Germany, France and Italy. They want to feel the atmosphere for themselves, not just read articles.”
Why UNESCO recognition matters now
The inscription highlights both the cultural depth of these practices and the urgency of protecting them.
Qualified kobyz creators are becoming rare. Environmental pressures are reducing access to suitable wood for yurt framing. Young people often turn to contemporary music and digital tools rather than traditional crafts.
Gulbakhar Izentaeva, director of the Savitsky State Art Museum in Nukus, told Euronews that this was the first time an item from Karakalpakstan was included in UNESCO’s intangible heritage lists, and the first from Uzbekistan placed on the Urgent Safeguarding List.
She warns that “young people don’t often listen to traditional music and don’t want to learn how to make kobyz.”
The student plays Kobuz – Foundation for the Development of Art and Culture of Uzbekistan
Izentaeva adds that knowledge that has survived for centuries now depends on a limited number of masters and a rapidly changing social environment.
Saida Mirziyoyeva, head of the presidential administration, noted on her social networks that the inscription underlines the deeper continuity that connects generations. “It reflects the depth of our traditions, the strength of our spiritual heritage and the continuing connection between generations. »
Throughout Central Asia, inscription is seen as recognition of a living chain of knowledge.
Even as daily life changes, the kobyz and yurt continue to anchor cultural identity throughout the region, supported by the communities who still practice and transmit them.
