To celebrate the National Dombra Day, the Permanent Delegation of Kazakhstan held an event at the UNESCO Headquarters, attended by Ambassadors of UNESCO Member States, the UNESCO Secretariat staff, and the Kazakhs permanently or temporarily residing in France, El.kz cites MFA.
Welcoming the guests, Askar Abdrakhmanov, Permanent Delegate of Kazakhstan to UNESCO, reminded that this year marks ten years since the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, at its 9th session in Paris on 26 November 2014, inscribed the Kazakh Traditional Art of Dombra Kuy on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. In this regard, he noted that “for Kazakhs, the dombra is more than a musical instrument, it is a powerful symbol of our identity and our enduring spirit.”
“For centuries, the dombra has been a storyteller, carrying through its strings to our youth the legends, emotions and aspirations of our ancestors. The journey of the Dombra Kuy from the Great Steppe of Eurasia to the global recognition by UNESCO is a testament of the universal language of music and its power to bridge cultures and generations,” the Kazakh diplomat added.
The Ambassador stressed that in addition to the tradition of learning to play the dombra in families, the central and local government bodies in Kazakhstan also organise training courses in elementary and secondary schools, tertiary and higher educational institutions, numerous concerts, festivals and many other forms of encouraging the dombra to remain an integral part of the living heritage of our people, including, since 2018, annual celebration of the National Dombra Day on the first Sunday of July.
Vera El Khoury Lacoeuilhe, Chairperson of the Executive Board of UNESCO, also addressed the participants of the event with welcoming remarks. Thanking the Kazakh colleagues for the opportunity to hear again the sounds of this beautiful instrument, she noted that “for centuries, the dombra has been the heartbeat of the Kazakh nation, used to celebrate and to mark solemn moments, preserving the country’s rich traditions.”
“Its sophisticated and gentle tonality produces enchanted sounds that paint images of the Kazakh steppe in the air. Sometimes it relaxes by its delicate tunes, sometimes it excites by resembling a herd of wild horses galloping across the wide prairie,” the diplomat emphasised.
Fumiko Ohinata, Secretary of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, also addressed the meeting on behalf of UNESCO.
“I wholeheartedly congratulate the people of Kazakhstan with the National Dombra Day and the 10th anniversary of the inscription of the Dombra Kuy on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity,” she said.
Ohinata underlines that “the dombra kuy is a part of the social and cultural fabric of Kazakhstan, played at gatherings, holidays, and festive celebrations”.
She said dombra kuy remains a vibrant living heritage because “it is constantly recreated and developed, with both classical and improvised pieces, it is passed on from master teachers to pupil musicians and within a family and from a generation to another, it is accompanied by stories and legends, and connects people with the environment.”
Ohinata called Kazakhstan “a very active member of our living heritage family” as “the country has been making important contributions in the governing bodies of the 2003 Convention”.
“It is not surprising that the Dombra Day is celebrated on the national level, because it clearly speaks to the hearts of the Kazakh people, it is important for their identity and their feeling of their connection to each other and to the environment,” she emphasised.
“Our appreciation goes once again to the national authorities of Kazakhstan for holding this event to commemorate the Dombra Kuy,” she concluded.
Chingis Kuanbaev and Amirkhan Unlu, Kazakhs living in France, presented live dombra playing at UNESCO Headquarters. The famous kuys Adai by Kurmangazy Sagyrbaiuly, Konil tolqyny by Seken Turysbekov and the Erkesylqym by Abdimomyn Zheldibayev were warmly met by the audience and received well-deserved applause.
The guests also appreciated the exhibition of children’s drawings and paintings on the theme of dombra, presented by the Kazakhstan Federation of UNESCO Clubs in the framework of the International Youth Festival, the Planet of Art.
At the conclusion, the participants thanked the organisers for the opportunity to get to know more closely the rich, original and diverse musical traditions associated with the dombra, and stressed the importance of joint efforts to preserve and promote the living heritage of the Kazakh people, which is a valuable and integral part of the cultural treasury of the humanity.