Culture experts highlight Balti folklore

During a session on 'Focusing Balti Folklore' Manzoor Baltistani presented folk songs of Baltistan


APP March 02, 2019
Lok Virsa. PHOTO: FILE

ISLAMABAD: Culture experts at the fourth session of Fortnightly Lok Baithak series on Thursday highlighted various aspects of the "Balti Folklore" at the media centre of National Institute of Folk and Traditional Heritage, Lok Virsa.

During the session on Focusing Balti Folklore Manzoor Baltistani presented folk songs of Baltistan, while Muhammad Hassan Hasrat, a renowned scholar from Baltistan, enlightened the audience about its customs, rituals and traditional social support system.

Hasrat has 20 publications on this subject. Ehsan Ali Danish, a popular Balti poet and story-writer narrated the stories from Baltistani folklore.

Participants of Lok Baithak’s are encouraged to share the values, knowledge, wisdom, stories, songs, tales, fables, epics, jokes, traditional games, riddles etc. and overall anything falling within the domain of folklore of their respective regions. Amateur singers and musicians among them sing and play music.

The main purpose of Lok Baithak is to revive the traditional informal sittings of the traditional and rural communities. The Lok Baithaks were multifaceted and used to serve the multiple purposes of associationalism, camaraderie, entertainment, social cohesion, knowledge sharing, creation of disciplinarian and organisational spirit, and above all hub of promotion of art and culture in the general communities.

This programme at Lok Virsa is open to the people of all age groups and multiple ethnicities in the style that they themselves are the speakers and listeners with the Lok Virsa being a regulator and facilitator only, said the organisers.  

Published in The Express Tribune, March 2nd, 2019.

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