Lok Virsa opens outlet for visitors

Lok Virsa intends to open similar outlets in other major cities: Executive director.

The National Institute of Folk and Traditional Heritage or Lok Virsa has opened a shop at Shakarparian. The project has been carried out under joint institutional cultural cooperation between Pakistan and Norway.

The shop sells books as well as audio visual materials including CDs and DVDs on various aspects of Pakistan’s rich cultural heritage produced by Lok Virsa, said a press release issued here on Sunday.

Located within the shopping arcade of the Heritage Museum, Pakistan’s first museum on ethnology has been designed by Asif Javed Shahjahan, Director of the Museum.

The shop provides a variety of information and material on culture, arts, crafts, folk and classical music on sale to the visitors.

It was a pressing demand from visitors that Lok Virsa should make available all its productions through an outlet. “We have been successful in fulfilling this demand by opening the shop with our Norwegian partners’ support”, Lok Virsa Executive Director Khalid Javaid said.

He added that his organisation is intending to open similar outlets in other major cities.

Being on of the largest publishers of the traditional music and culture, it has edited, compiled and produced a set of 36 cultural documentaries and 500 audio cassettes on the nation’s cultural heritage.

Lok Virsa has published over 200 books on different facets of Pakistani folklore and cultural heritage. Many of these books are award winners and a number of them are prescribed at postgraduate level in universities.

Describing Lok Virsa, the cultural storehouse of the country, Javaid said original research works, in all regional languages along with Urdu translation of the regional text are published.

“Lok Virsa’s publishing house aims to make regional folk literature available in the national language to promote closer fraternity amongst Pakistanis,and to make cultural literature available to educational institutes and social scientists,” he said.

Commenting on the project, a student said “It is a great service of Lok Virsa to the nation because such important material is not
available to public any where else. It is particularly helpful for students conducting research on Pakistan’s culture.”

The shop remains open for public six days a week from 10am to 5pm except Friday.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 30^th, 2011.