This article uses folklore materials collected by the author for studying the different social roles of the Tuvan musical wind instrument shoor in different historical periods in the life of ethnic Tuvans living in the Altai aimag of the Ili-Kazakh Autonomous Region of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China. Moreover, the author explores the origin, development and evolution of the given musical instrument, and also points to the social causes of the problem of inheritance of playing the shoor. The study has been carried out by the author over many years. The author is also one of the last owners of the fine art of playing this musical instrument. The result of the author's many years of work on this study was an extensive article published in Chinese in 2012.