had 62 different kinds of musical instruments, and in every Uyghur home there used to be an instrument called a "duttar". Uzbek composer Shakhida Shaimardanova uses themes from Uyghur folk music in her compositions. Dance Sanam is a popular folk dance among the Uyghur people. It is commonly danced by people at weddings, festive occasions, and parties. The dance may be performed with singing and musical accompaniment. Sama is a form of group dance for Newruz (New Year) and other festivals. Other dances include the Dolan dances, Shadiyane, and Nazirkom. Some dances may alternate between singing and dancing, and Uyghur hand-drums called dap are commonly used as accompaniment for Uyghur dances. Art During the late-19th and early-20th centuries, scientific and archaeological expeditions to the region of Xinjiang's Silk Road discovered numerous cave temples, monastery ruins, and wall paintings, as well as miniatures, books, and documents. There are 77 rock-cut caves at the site. Most have rectangular spaces with rounded arch ceilings often divided into four sections, each with a mural of Buddha. The effect is of an entire ceiling covered with hundreds of Buddha murals. Some ceilings are painted with a large Buddha surrounded by other figures, including Indians, Persians and Europeans. The quality of the murals vary with some being artistically naïve while others are masterpieces of religious art. Education Historically, the education level of Old Uyghur people was higher than the other ethnicities around them. The Buddhist Uyghurs of Qocho became the civil servants of Mongol Empire and Old Uyghur Buddhists enjoyed a high status in the Mongol empire. They also introduced the written script for the Mongolian language. In the Islamic era, education was provided by the mosques and madrassas. During the Qing era, Chinese Confucian schools were also set up in Xinjiang and in the late 19th century Christian missionary schools. In the late nineteenth and early 20th century, school were often located in mosques and madrassas. Mosques ran informal schools, known as mektep or maktab, attached to the mosques, The maktab provided most of the education and its curriculum was primarily religious and oral. Boys and girls might be taught in separate schools, some of which offered modern secular subjects in the early 20th century. In madrasas, poetry, logic, Arabic grammar and Islamic law were taught. In the early 20th century, the Jadidists Turkic Muslims from Russia spread new ideas on education and popularized the