Turdi Akhun sometimes spelled Turdu Ahun, was a traditional Uyghur

Uyghur people

The Uyghur are a Turkic ethnic group living in Eastern and Central Asia. Today, Uyghurs live primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China...

 folk

Music of China

Chinese Music has been made since the dawn of Chinese civilization with documents and artifacts providing evidence of a well-developed musical culture as early as the Zhou Dynasty...

 musician

Musician

A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....

 in the Xinjiang

Xinjiang

Xinjiang is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. It is the largest Chinese administrative division and spans over 1.6 million km2...

 region. He was born into a family with a rich musical history and could perform his music completely from memory, even into his 70s. Prior to his death he, along with Omar Akhun

Omar Akhun

Omar Akhun is a noted Uyghur composer and musical performer. He is best known for his Muqam melodies, often composing in 12 muqams. He was responsible along with Turdi Akhun in the 1950s in recording songs using this form and making it more systematic....

, made a recording of 12 muqam

Muqam

A muqam is the melody type used in Uyghur music, that is, a musical mode and set of melodic formulas used to guide improvisation and composition....

s, and was recognised as the foremost exponent of this genre.