👩🏻‍💻 International Seminar: From July 4 to 7, an international seminar titled “Joint Promotion of Cultural Heritage in Central Asia and Beyond: Opportunities and Challenges” was held on the shore of Lake Issyk-Kul. The event brought together cultural heritage experts and bearers of traditional knowledge from Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Russia, selected based on their significant work in areas of interest to the Aigine Cultural Research Center. Participants focused their collaborative efforts on three key themes and directions: the political context of joint promotion of cultural heritage, commercialization and over-commercialization of cultural heritage and traditional knowledge, and the negative aspects of traditional practices and ways to overcome them. The seminar concluded with the search for new forms of cooperation through group and individual work, as well as discussions on meeting the expectations of all participants.

📑 Working Meeting: On July 9, Aiza Abdyrahmanova, project coordinator of the Aigine CRC, as part of a delegation from Kyrgyzstan, participated in the final event of the project “Silk Road Heritage Trails in Central Asia – International Context of the European Year of Cultural Heritage,” held in Astana (Kazakhstan). During this event, the main results of the 6-year project were presented, including country reports from project participants – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan. Additionally, the online multimedia results of the project were showcased – the “Silk Road” section of the World Heritage Travels online platform and the virtual exhibition “Common Heritage of the Silk Road.”

🎶 Training Process: The working group of the project “Bringing Koñur Ün into the Sound of the Kyrgyz Orchestra,” musicians Cholpon Turumbayeva, Rysbek Zhunushov, Zalina Kasymova, continue the process of training young musicians to play the reconstructed 4-string komuz and reconstructed kyl kiyak. These musical instruments were specially created within the project by masters Rysbek Zhunushov and Marat Berikbaev. The musicians are preparing for the project’s reporting event – a concert incorporating these reconstructed musical instruments.

  Meeting-Interview: A meeting-interview was held with the Fergana-Media Azattyk project, during which Aigine CRC staff shared their activities on documenting and preserving intangible cultural heritage (ICH), particularly about a research project on the impact of climate change on ICH in the Batken and Naryn regions. The project’s chief expert, Aibek Samakov, shared preliminary research results and discussed further steps for publishing the guidelines.