Keyak is a bow and stringed musical instrument of the Kirgiz people. Chinese has been translated as Ke Ya Ke. Popular in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Kyzilsu Kirgiz Autonomous Prefecture and Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture Turks, Zhaosu, Emin and other places.
It has a long history and is an ancient Kirgiz folk musical instrument.
Keyak and Kubuzi, a Kazakh stringed instrument, are similar in appearance to the Xiqin, a stringed instrument used for Qinglong dance music in the Qing Dynasty. Their common feature is that the upper half of the resonance box is exposed and the lower half is covered.
The images of Xiqin are painted in documents such as "Lvlu Zhengyi·Houbian", "Dynasty Ritual Schema" and "Continued Documents of the Qing Dynasty", which are very similar to Keyak.
The traditional kejak structure has a total length of 62 cm to 75 cm, and is similar in shape to a short spoon. The body is made of a whole section of pine or mulberry.
The resonance box is spoon-shaped, the upper part is wider, the inner cavity is exposed, and the lower part is covered with camel lambskin or sheepskin.
The headstock is simple and unadorned, with a flat top and a peg on each side. The neck is short, narrow at the top and wide at the bottom, with a fingerboard on the front and no grades. There are bridges and horses on the leather surface, and two bundles of ponytail strings.