Yengisar Knife Craft Exhibition 英吉沙小刀工艺展示

About Yengisar Knife Craft Exhibition

The national project record for 维吾尔族传统小刀制作技艺, maintained by the China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network, gives the project number 905 and item number VIII-122, records that it was published in 2008 in the second batch, classes it as a traditional craft, records Yengisar County in Xinjiang as the declaring area and unit, and names the Yengisar County Cultural Centre as its protecting unit. The same record states that the Uyghur knife is a traditional Uyghur handicraft that serves both as a cutting tool and as an object of artistic value, and that the making technique is chiefly transmitted in Yengisar County in Kashgar Prefecture and Xayar County in Aksu Prefecture.

The heritage record describes Yengisar knives as generally 11 to 12 cm long, the longest over half a metre and the shortest about two cun, with shapes including crescent, fish belly, phoenix tail, eagle, red-billed chough and lark-head, among others, and with characters usually engraved on the blade. It records the making materials as typically including steel, brass, yak horn, deer horn and gazelle horn, the blade as hand-forged from quality steel, the handle as made of materials such as copper and bone and inlaid with silver, copper, jade and gemstones among others, and the sheath as pressed from cattle and sheep hide with a stamp. It records that mass-produced industrial goods hit the traditional trade hard and that some complex processes are at risk of being lost.

The county government's local-news page, credited to the county's own publication channel, records that Yengisar County attracts visitors with its intangible cultural heritage and that the Yengisar knife, as a national-level item, has become a popular tourist purchase for its craft and its shape. It records that at the Knife King's former residence (刀王故居) in Xiaodao village, Mangxin township, many finely made knives stand in display cases, with sharp blades, distinctive shapes and decoration inlaid with gemstones and shell among other materials, and that the lanes of the village are lined with knife shops whose owners explain the knives' materials, making technique and cultural meaning to visitors.

The catalogue name 英吉沙小刀工艺展示 is a compound label that no cited page uses. The two pages name the craft, the national project record and the places in Xiaodao village where knives are shown and sold, and neither establishes a single institution that is a knife-craft exhibition venue. Neither page gives a floor area, a collection figure or opening arrangements, and neither states how any display site is administered.

What to look for

• The display cases of Yengisar knives at the Knife King's former residence in Xiaodao village, Mangxin township, which the county page records as holding finely made knives with sharp blades and distinctive shapes
• The decoration the county page records on those knives, inlaid with gemstones and shell among other materials
• The knife shops lining the lanes of Xiaodao village, whose owners the county page records as explaining the knives' materials, making technique and cultural meaning
• The blade forms the heritage record lists for Yengisar knives, among them crescent, fish belly, phoenix tail, eagle, red-billed chough and lark-head
• The characters the heritage record records as usually engraved on Yengisar blades, and the handles it records as inlaid with silver, copper, jade and gemstones among other materials

Location & getting there

Getting to Yengisar Knife Craft Exhibition

Confirm the venue or campus, reservation channel and exhibition calendar. A museum name may cover more than one building.

• Search for 英吉沙小刀工艺展示 with 喀什地区 and 英吉沙县.