Horseback heritage of Horqin

Togtonbayar also worries about the inheritance of his craft: "Now young people tend to ride motorcycles and drive cars instead of riding horses, so there are fewer people making and buying riding gear.

"Many young ethnic Mongolians are ignorant of the names and uses of different types of equipment. If we cannot pass the craft on to them, part of our culture will be lost."

But his family has given him a lot of support. His eldest son has now picked up the handicraft. As a cultural inheritor, he receives a subsidy of 20,000 yuan every year from the government and is offered a 400-square-meter studio in Tongliao, where he imparts his craft to five ethnic Mongolian apprentices.

When the craft was featured by media after some of his work was shown at the 2010 World Expo, a Japanese postgraduate student came to China to learn from him for a month.

"The student picked it up quickly. He showed great interest in the craft and wrote an essay about it when he returned home," says Togtonbayar.

Togtonbayar is still devoted to this craft.

"I have the responsibility to make better works and pass on the traditional culture of our ethnic group to the next generation. Although society develops, we cannot forget our own culture," says Togtonbayar.

"As long as I am able to work, I will insist on doing it."