There are many songs on the pasture of Yugur Ethnic Group

The people of the Yuku nationality like singing, and there are many songs on the pasture of the Yuku nationality. Songs accompany the growth and life of every person of the Tu nationality. The people of the Yuku nationality say: “When I forget my hometown, I cannot forget the language of my hometown; when I forget the language of my hometown, I cannot forget the songs of our hometown.” 

The folk songs of the Yuku nationality have abundant contents, graceful melody, sprightly rhythms and distinguished national characteristic. In the contents and form, it mainly includes historical songs, production and labor songs, pastoral songs, love songs and life custom songs, etc. 

The historical songs mainly narrate the source of their own nationality and the migration history. For example, We Came to Know After Telling and Singing It narrates the history of the Yuku people’s ancestors who migrated west from Jiuquan to Qilian Mountain in the Ming Dynasty. 

Production labor songs’ source is the production practice, such as felt rolling songs, grass reaping songs, grass piling songs, etc, the rhythms are strongly accented and the melodies are solid and vigorous. 

Pastoral songs are a kind of lyric melody that is sung at the time of herding, such as sheep herding songs, cows herding songs, camels herding songs, milch lambs songs, milch foals songs and milch calves songs, etc. The pastoral songs are sonorous, loud and clear, or sweet, agreeable and melodious, they fully show the wide and magnificent pasture and the straightforward and uninhibited national makings of the Yuku people. For example, The Sheep Herding Song is as following:

Lalaoyi—
My treasured lamb,
In order to let you eat good grasses, 
I do not fear of walking for a long distance.
No matter how deep the ditch is, 
No matter how high the mountain is, 
If only you can become fatter quickly, 
I am happy to run farther. 
Lalaoyi—
My treasured baby, 
You should eat more grasses quickly.