Folk tunes of Baltistan mesmerise audience

Islamabad : The National Institute of folk and traditional (Lok Virsa) held Lok Baithak session centered on ‘Focusing Balti Folklore’ here at Lok Virsa.

Renowned young folk singer from Baltistan Manzoor Balti presented folk songs of Baltistan, whilst Muhammad Hassan Hasrat, a prominent scholar from Baltistan, enlightened audience about the customs, rituals and traditional social support system of Baltistan.

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

The organisers said the Lok Baithak series was to revive the traditional informal sittings of the traditional and rural communities.

"As we all know, that these Lok Baithaks were multifaceted and used to serve the multiple purposes of associationalism, camaraderie, entertainment, social cohesion, knowledge sharing, the creation of disciplinarian and organizational spirit, and above all hub of promotion of art and culture in the general communities," an organiser said. He said the programme was open to the people of all age groups of diverse ethnicities with the idea that they themselves are the speakers and listeners with Lok Virsa playing the role of regulator and facilitator only. The organisers said participants were encouraged and allowed to bring their musical instruments and artifacts they specializes in and that they were motivated to share the values, knowledge, wisdom, stories, songs, tales, fables, epics, jokes, traditional games, riddles etc. overall everything falling within the domain of folklore of their respective regions.