(250502) -- URUMQI, May 2, 2025 (Xinhua) -- A band rehearses their adapted rock version of the "Manas" epic at a practice hall in Artux City, Kizilsu Kirgiz Autonomous Prefecture in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, April 22, 2025.
A new regulation to preserve the "Manas" epic, a UNESCO-listed oral tradition of the Kirgiz ethnic group in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, came into effect Thursday.
The "Manas" epic is one of the three great heroic epics of Chinese ethnic minorities, along with "King Gesar" of the Tibetan ethnic group and "Jangar" of the Mongolian ethnic group.
The regulation, with 26 articles, stipulates the systematic protection of this Kirgiz intangible cultural heritage, including protection and inheritance measures, research, translation and publication, as well as literary and artistic creation.
"Manas" was included on UNESCO's "Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity" in 2009. (Xinhua/Xu Hongyan)
