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Lok Virsa opens new diorama on ethnic wedding costumes

By Our Correspondent
January 11, 2019

Islamabad : The National Institute of Folk and Traditional Heritage (Lok Virsa) have set up a new diorama on the ethnic wedding costumes of Pakistan (women) depicting wedding and other traditional costumes from all provinces, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

The diorama was inaugurated on Thursday at the Heritage Museum.

Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Zahida Parveen was the chief guest of the opening ceremony.

Executive Director of Lok Virsa Shahira Shahid in her welcoming address said that Lok Virsa was a national institution and works in close collaboration with all provincial culture departments, arts councils and community-based organisations for the promotion of their indigenous folk culture.

The ceremony featured a specially-produced traditional/wedding costumes show presented by male and female models on ramp on beautiful tunes of the popular folk musical instruments (rabab, santoor, alghoza, dandung, saroz and flute). Live folk musical performances by folk artists and folk musicians are also included in the programme.

Additional Secretary Zahida Parveen also spoke on the occasion and commended efforts of Lok Virsa for materializing the project in such a beautiful and effective way. “The fascinating thing about the Heritage Museum is that it presents history and living traditions of the people of Pakistan both from the mainstream and the remotest regions of the country,” she said.

The Lok Virsa is a specialised institution dealing with research, collection, documentation, preservation and dissemination of Pakistan’s traditional culture.

Established in the year 1974, the Institute has made notable achievements in the field of culture at home and abroad.

They include the establishment of the first ethnological museum in Pakistan, officially named as Pakistan National Museum of Ethnology and popularly known as Heritage Museum.

The organisers said the museum depicts living cultural traditions and lifestyles of people covering whole Pakistan including remote and far-flung areas, presented through three-dimensional creative manner.

They said the museum had a covered area of 60,000 square feet which makes it the largest Museum in Pakistan.

Besides documenting the indigenous folk heritage of Pakistan, the Museum also projects cultures of other friendly and brotherly countries that share similarities and influences with the culture of Pakistan including China, Iran, Turkey and the Central Asian States through various link passages showcasing artefacts contributed by them, the statement added.

The organisers said the museum is an important show-window on Pakistan’s living culture which is frequented by around 50,000 visitors a month.