Lok Virsa puts up sculptures depicting regional cultures

Islamabad: The National Institute of Folk and Traditional Heritage (NIFTH) at Lok Virsa has placed several sculptures depicting the cultures of country’s four provinces and Gilgit-Baltistan at the entrance lobby of its museum.

In this respect, a special ceremony was held with High Commissioner of Sri Lanka to Pakistan Major General (r) Jayanath C.P. Lokuketagodage in attendance as the chief guest.

The Sri Lankan envoy appreciated the efforts of young professionals of the NCA for executing the project and said Lok Virsa deserved commendation for doing such an excellent job in collecting and preserving the cultural and traditional heritage which Pakistani nation inherited from its forefathers.

"Each province and region has its own cultural identity which is beautifully presented by Lok Virsa here at the Heritage Museum in the form of sculptures," he said. Executive Director of the Lok Virsa Dr. Fouzia Saeed introduced the young talented artists, who made these sculptures depicting the beautiful colours of Pakistan with the Sri Lankan High Commissioner.

Among them were Nazir Hunzai, Komal Nadeem, Shaheena Mughal, Neeli Ahmed, Noor Fatima and Adnan Haider. The Lok Virsa chief said, "We have been working on exciting additions at Lok Virsa with a focus on introducing new pathways and innovations at the Heritage Musuem in keeping with the latest techniques used in museums around the world."

She said the addition of these beautiful sculptures to welcome visitors to Heritage Museum was a great milestone for Lok Virsa which is the home of all provinces of Pakistan. These sculptures include Panihari women from Sindh searching the Tharparkar desert in quest of water, a Baloch folk singer singing a folk song with a Danbura which is a famous musical instrument of Balochistan, a skilful artist from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa engaged in the age old tradition of stone carving, a woman in Punjab churning butter milk (Lasssi) in a clay pot with a wooden hand mixer i.e Madani and a herder from Gilgit-Baltistan is carrying a goat on his shoulder. The Lok Virsa dance group ‘Jamalo’ also performed folk dances of different areas of country.