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Where Rivers and Mountains sing – Dr T Levin

"Have you heard anything about shamans healing with the qyl-qobyz?" I asked Raushan.

"I believe that they did, because I always feel this quality in the instrument - that it's a healing instrument."

"How does that quality manifest itself?" I asked.

"When I go into trance - I don't know how else to explain it - when I reach a kind of summit; when I'm really alone in myself and no one else is interfering; when I detach myself - then I really give myself with my soul and heart to this instrument. I know that I serve the instrument. You have to play it with a clean, true heart. If you play it just as work, just to earn money, then the instrument will never open itself up to you. The more you play, the more you have the desire to search; you feel there's something inside, and you're trying to get at it and get it to open up. You have to work at it, you have to think. It's a philosophy. You can't just give in to contemporary life if you want to stay on this path. So of course the qobyz can heal. I believe that because I feel it myself."

The body of the qyl-qobyz is shaped like a heart. The lower part of the face, where the two sides come together, is covered by animal skin, but the upper part is open. Inside, embedded in the wooden shell of Raushan's instrument, were two small diamond-shaped mirrors. Oblong metal jangles that looked like long, narrow earrings dangled over the open shell. I asked Raushan about the mirrors, which I assumed to be linked to the mirrors used by shamans to see spirits.

"Yes, it's true that shamans call spirits with mirrors. At the same time, I'm a performer and when you perform, people get very curious, and some of them can cast the evil eye, so the mirrors protect you from the evil eye………….