Dolan (Uyghur: دولان, Долан; Simplified Chinese: 刀朗 or 多朗) refers to a people or region of what is now Xinjiang Province, China.
Though modern Dolan people now speak the vernacular dialect (usually Uyghur), the term refers to an earlier culture and civilization in the region.
Some scholars and travelers believed the Dolan of the Yarkand River valley to be a Kazakh or Kyrgyz group that settled in the area during the Qing dynasty.
[citation needed] Some of the aspects of Dolan culture that remain to the present day include the unique style of music and dance.
[citation needed] The plucked-string instruments used to perform Dolan Muqam or Dolan Meshrep are different from their counterparts in Uyghur folk music and usually contain a large set of sympathetic strings that resonate with certain key tones, similar to the lutes and fiddles of India and the near east.