Music of Turkmenistan

The music of contemporary nomadic and rural Turkmen people is closely related other Central Asian folk forms and is descended from Arab and Persian forms of the Middle Ages. Important musical traditions in Turkmen music include traveling singers and shamans called bagshy, who act as healers and magicians and sing either a cappella or accompanied by the dutar, a two-stringed lute. The Central Asian classical music tradition, mugam, is also present in Turkmenistan under the name mukamlar.