Step into a Dolan dining room and you are greeted by a crowd of musicians. Men in white and in embroidered doppa caps bend over long-necked rawaps and dutars; drummers lift their hands; a white-bearded elder bows a stringed instrument at the center of it all; a young woman in red plucks a lute at the back. The painting is Muqam, completed in 1984 by the Uyghur painter Ghazi Ehmet, and Dolan is proud to hold the copyright to it. Its subject — the muqam, the great musical gathering of the Uyghur people — is the same one that made Ehmet's earlier Uyghur Muqam the most recognized painting in Uyghur culture. We display Muqam in our restaurants for a reason, and this is the story behind it.
A short history of Uyghur art
Uyghur art has a long memory. It begins with the world-famous Buddhist cave paintings of Dunhuang and runs through centuries of handicrafts, embroidery, carpet making and calligraphy — the traditional arts of an oasis culture on the Silk Road. The modern period of Uyghur painting is usually dated from 1933, when Uyghur artists began to depict the cultural life of their own people: the gatherings, the music, the everyday scenes. The most famous painting of that movement is Ghazi Ehmet's Uyghur Muqam.
The painter
Ghazi Ehmet was born in March 1935 in Kashgar, the ancient oasis city at the western edge of the Taklamakan Desert. In the 1970s he painted Uyghur Muqam, among the first Uyghur paintings to represent Uyghur cultural life on a monumental scale and still his best-known work. He returned to the theme again and again: Meshrep (1977) records another pillar of community life, the gathering of music, poetry and conversation that gives it its name, and in 1984 he completed Muqam, the painting that hangs at Dolan. Ghazi Ehmet passed away on November 16, 2017.
What a muqam is
"Muqam" is the name for a family of musical suites performed across the Uyghur homeland in Central Asia for centuries — a mix of songs, dances and instrumental music, remarkable for the variety of its content, its choreography, its styles and its instruments. Because the homeland sits on the Silk Road, Uyghur music has always carried the exchange between East and West, and the muqam draws on themes from many cultures of Central Asia. Our own name honors part of that tradition: the Dolan tribe for whom our restaurants are named were famous for their music and dance, and the Dolan muqam is still performed today.
What our painting shows
In Muqam (1984), Ghazi Ehmet painted a muqam in progress. Look closely and you will find the traditional instruments — the rawap and the dutar, both stringed, along with drums, flutes and a hammered dulcimer laid across a musician's lap. The subjects wear regional clothing, and every man wears a doppa, the embroidered Uyghur cap. Like Uyghur Muqam before it, the painting celebrates both the historical and the contemporary life of Uyghur society: an elder and young people, singers and players, all gathered on one carpet.
Why it hangs on our walls
Uyghur Muqam is known throughout Uyghur society. It has been part of the Uyghur school curriculum and appears in textbooks, posters and homes; it is said that nearly every Uyghur college student can recognize it at a glance. Our Muqam carries that same scene into our dining rooms. At Dolan Uyghur Restaurant we display it to share this important piece of our culture with you and to honor the history of our people. The next time you visit, find the painting, find the elder at its center, and think of the rich history of the Uyghur people — then listen for the music, which still plays in our dining rooms every day.
Dolan Uyghur Restaurant
At Dolan Uyghur Restaurant, we serve fresh, healthy and delicious Uyghur cuisine. On our menu you'll find hand-pulled noodles, chicken stew, handmade dumplings and many more delicious dishes. Our chefs prepare each dish with fresh ingredients, authentic recipes and pride in our culture. With every item on our menu, we are committed to preserving and sharing the authentic flavors and traditions of Uyghur and Central Asian cuisine. We invite you to learn more about us, view our menu, see our locations or make a reservation.
Ghazi Ehmet, Muqam (1984). Dolan Uyghur Restaurant holds the copyright to this painting; it is reproduced here courtesy of Dolan. Adapted from Dolan's own article of June 13, 2022.
