Kazakh Dastan

Xinjiang
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Dastan is the main carrier of Kazakh folk culture and a folk rap art with a long history. Each Dastan has a complete story. Various folk cultures of the Kazakh people are passed down from generation to generation through Dastan. "Dastan" originally means a long narrative poem. It was a folk oral literary form from the 9th to the 10th century. The plot is complicated and the length is very long. One Dastan can be sung for a whole day and a night. "Dastan" praises the fighting spirit of Kazakh youth against oppression and for freedom of marriage, and occupies an important position in the history of Kazakh literature. People who are good at singing this kind of "Dastan" are called "Dastanqi". Hazimu, a herdsman from Harin Village, Kokagash Township, Fuhai County, is the only old man who sings the most Kazakh Dastan. Among the more than 200 Kazakh "Dastans" that are relatively well preserved, old man Hazimu can sing 104 of them, and is known as a living record of singing Kazakh "Dastan". "Dastan" is an ancient folk long rap form of the Kazakh people and is known as the "living fossil" of Kazakh history. The narrative long poem was a folk oral literary form from the 9th to the 10th century. It has a complex plot and is very long. One dastan can be sung for a whole day and night. "Dastan" praises the spirit of the Kazakh youth to fight against oppression and fight for freedom of marriage. It occupies an important position in the history of Kazakh literature. [3] "Dastan" mainly consists of two parts: "Hesa" type long poem and narrative long poem. Hesa long poem is a relatively special and very important type of work in the vast number of Kazakh folk long poems. Hesa long poems are not only numerous, but also have complex plots. Most of them are deeply influenced by Islam. Most of them are created by adopting or borrowing foreign myths, legends and stories. At the same time, the content is close to the life of the ethnic group, thus becoming a relatively unique and important work in the Kazakh long poem. The most influential and important representative works of this type of long poems among the Kazakh people include "The Book of Khorkhet Ata" (consisting of 12 long poems), "40 Ones of Crimea", "40 Stories of the Parrot", "Forty Prime Ministers" and "The Biography of the Prophet" (consisting of more than 70 long poems, legends, stories, tales, poems and articles). According to statistics, the Kazakh people have more than 200 long poems of the black sa type. [4] Narrative long poems are narrative long poems that were created based on the stories of the native Kazakhs in history. Kazakh folk narrative long poems are extremely rich and can be divided into several categories according to their content, such as heroic long poems, love long poems and historical long poems. The earliest heroic long poems are "Alepamis" in the 10th and 11th centuries, "Kobland" in the 11th and 12th centuries, and "Heroic Targen" in the 14th and 15th centuries. These long poems praise the heroes who bravely fight against the enemy to protect the safety of the tribe. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the further awakening of national consciousness led to the emergence of a number of new heroic poems, such as "Shabanbai" and "Janibek 1". "Kozikulpashi and Bayansuru" is the oldest of the Kazakh love poems. This 30,000-line poem was originally formed in the 9th and 10th centuries, and later became an artistic treasure after being tempered by folk artists. Other popular love poems include "Girl Jibek", "Aiman and Qiaolepan", "Saliha and Saman", etc. These poems were produced early, with complex plots, concise language, high artistic quality and strong appeal. These works are not only well-known among the people of the ethnic group, but also have a great influence on some other ethnic groups. Among the numerous love poems, there are also rich descriptions and materials related to the customs and national characteristics of the Kazakh people. Historical poems mainly narrate tribal history and genealogy, such as "Abulai". On June 7, 2008, Kazakh Dastan was approved by the State Council to be included in the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage list.

Intangible culture related to the heritage

World heritage related to the heritage