The musical traditions of Central Asia mirror the immense diversity found in the cultures and populations residing in the region.
Principal instrument types are two- or three-stringed lutes, the necks either fretted or fretless; fiddles made of horsehair; flutes, mostly sige at both ends and either end-blown or side-blown; and jew harps, mostly metal.
The face is covered with sheep or snakeskin with the belly or back left open to act as the sound hole.
The Darhats of Hövsgöl province, north-west Mongolia, call it hyalgasan huur, and by predominantly female ensemble-performers.
The 12th-century Yüan-Shih describes the two-string fiddle, xiqin, bowed with a piece of bamboo between the strings, used by Mongols.
A bridge, standing on the skin table, supports two gut or steel strings, which pass up the rounded, fretless neck to two posterior pegs and down to the bottom, where they are attached to the spike protruding from the body.
AKMICA has also produced and sponsored music tours and festivals, is engaged in documentation and dissemination, and collaborates with the Silk Road Project.