How to Craft a Morin Khuur Violin and Protect Mongolian Traditions
5 Video Views·Jul 15, 2025
The steppes of Mongolia, in the heart of Central Asia, sometimes echo with the haunting sound of music that reaches into the hearts of animals and men.
The Mongolian nomads have attributed magical powers to this instrument since ancient times. In the hands of the shamans, it has even made animals cry. It's called the ""morin khuur,"" or ""horse-head fiddle."" It's an ethnological treasure, but an endangered one. In 2003, UNESCO proclaimed it an intangible heritage of humanity.
Extract from The Soul of the Mongolian Horseman
Direction: Benoît Ségur
Production: ZED for TF1
This is how you do it.
You hold it like this.
And then you pull.
Like this.
That's it.
And then you pull it like this.
Like this.
And then you pull.
Like this.
You put it here,
like this,
and then you pull.
Press down like this,
just like this.
You hold it like this,
pull like this,
and then press it.
Then you pull it like this,
do you see what I did?
Like this,
I saw the big bear.
That bear...
That bear is called the...
I can't remember its name.
There are two wakes in it.
One wakes up...
It's in the jungle.
It's in the middle of the forest.
It goes around in a circle.
During the day
it can see what is going on around it.
You know what I'm saying?
So if we used to ask it to climb a hill it wouldn't do it.
We have a big rock well in front of us.
If we ask it to climb a hill it could do it.
So it's very small.
I'm going to cut it in half, and then I'm going to cut it in half again, and then I'm
going to cut it in half again.
This is the last piece of the room.
The last piece of the room.
There is a small window.
We can see there is a door.
This door is for the windows.
And this door is for the window.
We can see that this window is open.
And this door is closed.
I