https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F323tUAS99w&amp;feature=youtu.beInside buses on their daily commute Nepalis are used to listening to familiar-sounding songs that feature alternating female and male voices, responding to one another, often cheekily.Called lok dohori (people’s duet) this genre originated with the Gurung community and its tradition of the rodi ghar dance halls. After a hard day of harvests on the terrace farms, young men and women challenged each other with duets in which the musical repartee had to come within 30 seconds.“The rodi tradition had gone by the time we grew up in Gorkha, but our elders still sang the duets and we learnt it from them. We sang about love, happiness and sadness,” recalls noted folk singer Harimaya Gurung. “But the songs have changed a lot. These days it is not as emotional as before.”Cultural historians agree that the commercialisation of the entertainment industry and the advent of YouTube and Facebook have cost Nepali folk songs their cultural value. Still, every Tij festival folk singers come up with new numbers in which the lyrics delve into contemporary issues like migration, patriarchy or even corruption in government.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/on-a-high-note/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tibetan music in Nepal’s sacred valley</a>, Sewa Bhattarai“We must change as the trend develops,” notes folk singer Chandra Sharma of the National Folk and Duet Song Academy. “They may be commercial hits, but they have mostly added to the continued appeal of the lok dohori genre.”However, there are complaints about folk songs being too explicit or provocative, even obscene. Sharma admits there are some extreme examples, but his Academy has set standards and criteria for song lyrics.The folk songs are changing in other ways, too. The popular and controversial song by Pashupati Sharma, Lutna sake lut (Loot all you can) was a satirical critique of rampant corruption, and became an anthem for frustrated Nepalis, especially when it was censored after the singer received threats from ruling party youth.“These voices have brought positive changes. There are many songs about corruption, freedom for women, against caste discrimination and songs about the state of the country. That means folk duets are relevant and playing a constructive role in society,” hit folk singer Badri Pangeni told Nepali Times.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/review/eastern-melodies-in-kathmandu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Eastern melodies in Kathmandu</a>, Sewa Bhattarai<h2>Message or entertainment?</h2><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110814114/636a54259c7e80680e052390jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="667"/>New generation lok dohori singers who want to send a message sometimes find themselves up against traditional expectations. “I have sung songs with social content, but when I sing on stage I focus on romantic songs, because that is what people want to hear,” says Kala Lamsal, a contemporary folk duet singer who recently released her Tij song, Patali.Singer Mina Lama tries to find a balance. “It depends on the place and time,” she says. “I prefer to sing songs that give a message as well as entertaining songs to sing with friends and family.”Generally, fans who attend a stage performance want fast-moving entertainment, says Lama. “People today want to dance and have fun. While there are people who listen to the lyrics, the crowd during festivals and mela (fairs) include more young people, who enjoy dancing.”Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/fire-in-the-belly-2/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Still dancing and singing for Nepal revolution,</a> Sewa Bhattarai<h2>Changing Tij tunes</h2><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110814114/636a54289c7e80680e052391jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="667"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Tij is traditionally celebrated by women all over Nepal either for the long lives of their husbands, or so they can find good husbands. Dressed in red saris, red and green bangles, and other colourful ornaments, they sing and dance on the streets while thronging Pashupati and other temples to pray to Shiva and Parbati, the celestial couple.Although some activists boycotted Tij because of its patriarchal overtones, today the festival's songs carry a message of gender empowerment and poke fun at the patriarchy, while at the same time promoting solidarity. However, as women get more educated, even that is changing. Many women just want to have fun with their female relatives and friends and do not want to sing only depressing songs about victimhood.“People asked me why women were only singing about suffering because not all women suffer. This made me change my mind,” says folk duet singer Chandra Sharma. “It seemed that women just want to let their hair down and make Tij their festival of sisterhood.”Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/parodying-patriarchy-at-tij/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Parodying patriarchy at Tij,</a> Sewa Bhattarai<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110814114/636a542a9c7e80680e052392jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="1173"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>It’s not only the content that is changing, male singers are also performing Tij songs, which would have been rare 20 years ago. For example, the 2018 Tij song, Motiram ra Jamuna by Badri Pangeni delivered the positive message about husband Motiram supporting his wife Jamuna when she gets elected in local elections. Because of her busy schedule, the husband begins doing all the household work:“Barsaudekhi nariharu le gare chulochaukaMahila le ni paunu parcha desh banaune mauka”“For years women worked in the kitchen station,Now, she need the chance to build the nation.”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdGQaphxrxMSays folk singer Harimaya Gurung: “Tij is a festival of women but men also sing Tij songs. I think this is a good trend because it means they are supporting us women.”Read also: <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=16252#.XV5_LuMzbIU" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Re-inventing Tij</a>, Mallika Aryal

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Nepali folk songs move beyond love and loss

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110813114/636a46529c7e80680e04d3d0jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"/><figcaption>'Comrade Pratista, 14, dances to the tune of a revolutionary song at a Maoist mass rally in Dang in 2001 during a Dasain ceasefire. Photo: TAKAAKI YAGISAWA/A PEOPLE WAR</figcaption></figure>Men and women in unisex combat fatigues dance energetically on stage. Their modernistic, martial moves would not look out of place in a tv reality show. But the lyrics tell a different story:It is time to sharpenthe shining khukri againThis YouTube video clip shows members of the Samana Cultural Group affiliated with the Biplav faction continuing where the mainstream Maoist party left off after the ceasefire in 2006.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vpqh0qAN72sSongs like these were hits during the insurgency, when Maoist propaganda units toured the country performing and mustering public support for the revolution. In many places, it worked.But even though Nepal has gone from war to peace, from <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/nepal-from-royal-to-republic,3736" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">monarchy to republic</a>, and many of the performers have either migrated for work overseas or turned to other professions, members of the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/its-a-crime-not-to-call-it-terrorism/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Biplav faction</a> are still singing to show that the revolution continues.The tradition of revolutionary songs did not begin with the Maoists. Ranudevi Adhikari, the first female voice on radio, sang songs against the <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/the-rana-reign-a-recap-of-history,3751" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Rana regime </a>that were broadcast from clandestine stations in 1949. One of them went:                Nepali, Nepali,                Let’s march forward                with the flag of revolution in our handsThe genre came to be known as janabadi, and the songs were revived during the Panchayat when four youngsters, Raamesh, Raayan, <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=3643#.XQtmIhYzaUk" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Manjul </a>and Arim, established a group called Ralfa.“At the time, the only songs were about love, not about the harsh life of poor people,” remembers Raayan, who today heads the Nepal Academy of Music and Dance. “Our intention was to bring awareness and to change society through music.”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UMN8Sm9H-sThe group went on to create rousing songs like <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=868#.XQtmIxYzaUk" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Gaun Gaun Bata Utha</a> and Gariba ko Chameli, and toured Nepal singing songs protesting against the Panchayat regime and establishing the pragatishil genre, which shares many features with protest music worldwide.The lyrics mainly dealt with social inequities and injustice. The music was often martial and easy to repeat and understand because it was based on simple folk tunes. When performed as dances, the songs were deliberately non-sexual, featuring uniformed men and women.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm-NhAb2XRAThe tunes were instrumental in the success of the anti-Panchayat people’s movement of 1990 and the 2006 anti-monarchy protests. During the 1996-2006 insurgency, the messages focused on injustice and an exhortation to rise up and fight. There were krantikari (revolutionary) songs eulogising courage on the battlefield and mournful ones about martyrs.“The function of revolutionary songs was to recruit people to the revolutionary cause, and to rally the people,” recalls Mani Thapa (video below), who headed a Maoist cultural group. “They were relevant at a particular moment in history, and we don’t really sing such battle-ready songs anymore.”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UnxO2TAn_QMany of the songs are now lost because they were never recorded, but also because the cause dissipated after the war. Writer and music analyst Raman Ghimire believes this is the fate of all revolutionary songs: “They are associated with a particular ideology and are only relevant as long as the movement needs them. They are never going to be popular in the mainstream.”The Maoist party’s cultural wing attracted many talented lyricists, composers and singers, but it was later dismantled. “After the ceasefire we had intense debate about which way we should go, towards peace or towards another revolution (shanti ki kranti),” remembers Laxmi Gurung (video below) who joined the Maoists out of revenge after her leftist father was disappeared by state security and her husband killed. It is her voice in dozens of revolutionary songs, including Rana Maidan Ma, in which a line says, ‘the lives of brave warriors bloom in the battlefield’.https://youtu.be/zZRtHbEGuDYLaxmi Gurung (above) joined the Maoists after her father and husband were killed. She did vocals for dozens of revolutionary songs.“More bloodshed will not be good for the country,” says Gurung now, adding that it is hard to survive as a singer in peacetime. Other members of her troupe have chosen other paths  too. Mani Thapa became a politician, while Maila Lama (video below) who sang songs exhorting guerrillas to battle, has joined the Biplov faction.Pragati Mahara of the Maoist Pratirodh Cultural Group today sings songs about social ills and transformation. “The songs about battles are a part of history,” says Mahara. “Now that our revolution is over, we are more focused on the need of the day.”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfkOcWj7TJoMeanwhile, the original Ralfa generation is still active, perhaps more so than the Maoists who came after them. But even they have distanced themselves from politics. As head of a government institution, Raayan is focused on promoting Nepal’s folk art.Raamesh also shuns political affiliations, even though Ralfa’s songs were used by many political movements: first against the Panchayat, then by the Maoists, who saw them as precursors to their own revolutionary songs, and finally by political parties during the 2006 anti-monarchy protests.Raamesh is now more active as a children’s song creator. “We sing people’s songs, which speak up for the poor and disenfranchised. If anyone wants to use them for a good cause, they are welcome. But using it for vested political interests is a crime,” he says.Unlike Maoist songs, Ralfa’s numbers are evergreen because they speak of the larger causes of justice and equality. There is a lesson there in what makes a song endure, while others disappear.Jeevan Sharma, who established the Raktim Cultural Group, is among the few revolutionary singers who has gone mainstream. “The people always need a voice, and songs that speak truth to power. If they do that, songs do not need to be associated with any political party – they can have a life of their own.”Sharma’s own song of the life of the disenfranchised, Simali Chhaya ma Basera, has that long shelf-life.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Izb4dfqUt1ISince the Raktim Cultural Group was associated with the NCP Masaal led by Mohan Bikram Singh, Sharma’s songs were unofficially banned during the monarchy days and the composer himself was semi-underground during the Panchayat and the war years.Ironically the Maoists, who once promoted revolutionary songs, are today <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/creeping-control-over-the-press-in-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">cracking down</a> on protest songs. Those who claimed to speak for people’s rights now try to ban songs like Pashupati Sharma’s Lutna Sake Loot.Raamesh himself is still writing songs, and his latest shows the fire has not gone out:                A great storm arose                To raise the fallen head of justice                Their deceitful face is now clear                Now we know they are regressive<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110813114/636a46559c7e80680e04d3d1jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="985"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><h2>Laxmi Gurung's wartime memories in pictures</h2><figure class="gallery-item"><a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/laxmi-gurung-with-purna-gharti-another-revolutionary-artist.jpg" data-elementor-open-lightbox="default" data-elementor-lightbox-slideshow="55de498"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110813114/636a46589c7e80680e04d3d2jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="100" aria-describedby="gallery-1-28728"></a><figcaption id="gallery-1-28728" class="wp-caption-text gallery-caption">Laxmi Gurung with another revolutionary singer</figcaption></figure><figure class="gallery-item"><a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/laxmi-gurung-with-sita-acharya-and-other-party-cadres.jpg" data-elementor-open-lightbox="default" data-elementor-lightbox-slideshow="55de498"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110813114/636a465b9c7e80680e04d3d3jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="108" aria-describedby="gallery-1-28729"></a><figcaption id="gallery-1-28729" class="wp-caption-text gallery-caption">laxmi gurung with Maoist singer Sita Acharya and other party cadres</figcaption></figure><figure class="gallery-item"><a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/laxmi-gurung-is-welcomed-with-flowers-at-a-village-during-her-campaign-as-a-revolutionary-singer.jpg" data-elementor-open-lightbox="default" data-elementor-lightbox-slideshow="55de498"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110813114/636a465f9c7e80680e04d3d4jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="101" aria-describedby="gallery-1-28732"></a><figcaption id="gallery-1-28732" class="wp-caption-text gallery-caption">laxmi gurung is welcomed with flowers at a village</figcaption></figure><figure class="gallery-item"><a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/laxmi-gurung-during-the-Maoist-era.jpg" data-elementor-open-lightbox="default" data-elementor-lightbox-slideshow="55de498"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110813114/636a46629c7e80680e04d3d5jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="101" aria-describedby="gallery-1-28733"></a><figcaption id="gallery-1-28733" class="wp-caption-text gallery-caption">Laxmi Gurung during her days as a member of Maoist Cultural troupe</figcaption></figure><figure class="gallery-item"><a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/laxmi-gurung-with-maila-lama-a-revolutionary-artist-who-is-with-biplov-faction-today-1.jpg" data-elementor-open-lightbox="default" data-elementor-lightbox-slideshow="55de498"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110813114/636a46669c7e80680e04d3d6jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="97" aria-describedby="gallery-1-28734"></a><figcaption id="gallery-1-28734" class="wp-caption-text gallery-caption">laxmi Gurung with Maila Lama, a Maoist ]artist who is with Biplov faction today</figcaption></figure><figure class="gallery-item"><a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/laxmi-gurung-with-sita-acharya-another-revolutionary-singer.jpg" data-elementor-open-lightbox="default" data-elementor-lightbox-slideshow="55de498"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110813114/636a46689c7e80680e04d3d7jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="103" aria-describedby="gallery-1-28730"></a><figcaption id="gallery-1-28730" class="wp-caption-text gallery-caption">Laxmi Gurung with Sita Acharya, a prominent member of Samana Cultural Group</figcaption></figure>Read also: <a style="text-indent: -15pt; background-color: #ffffff; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/issue/350/Nation/13572#.XQtlIBYzaUk">Voice of the party</a>, Govinda Luitel

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Still dancing and singing for Nepal revolution

https://youtu.be/OmJUQXfTVlEA<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/winter-emergency-for-quake-survivors,2715" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fter the 2015 earthquake</a>, many mountain communities in Nepal stopped celebrating festivals because they were in mourning. More than three years later, devotional songs are being heard again.Last month in Langtang the Drukpa Tseshi festival that celebrates the Buddha's first teaching at Sarnath was held for the first time since 2015. Ethnomusicologist Mason Brown was there, and says he was lucky to finally hear songs of Nepal’s Tibetan communities directly in relation to earthquake recovery.As an American who grew up a Buddhist, Brown is also a folk music enthusiast, and used to perform at Bluegrass festivals in the US. After studies at the Naropa University in Colorado he went to Japan where he lived with a monk in Nigata and studied liturgical music. His fascination for the Tibetan language led him to choose Tibetan folk songs for his PhD thesis.During his research, Browncame across a CD of songs from <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/preaching-on-high,3904" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nubri in Upper Gorkha</a>. He has been visiting the holy valley ever since to record songs in the dozen or so Tibetan speaking villages beyond Ganesh Himal."Tibetan music in Tibet has been affected by the cultural revolution and also by Chinese musical traditions, whereas in Nepal their music has changed at a slower pace because of the isolation,” Brown explains.Brown’s Nubri recordings have songs from celebrations, festivals, weddings, and contain Buddhist references even when they are secular.This is very different from European music where sacred songs have a particular time and place (usually the Church), and religious references rarely find their way into ballads.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110714118/6369033e9c7e80680e037caejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="1110"/><figcaption>METAPHORS: Nubri residents perform a dance with a message of compassion. Folk preformances here communicate the Buddha's teachings. Photos: Mason Brown</figcaption></figure><a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/winter-emergency-for-quake-survivors,2715" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A Nubri</a> song that starts out as a mantra to Avalokitsewara urges the listener to not be lazy like a cow, but to take heed of impermanence and practice the dharma in this life. The simple lyrics encapsulate the wisdom of Buddhist philosophy: that life is transient, suffering inevitable, and the only way to remedy this is to practice dharma through good deeds.The songs exhort listeners and singers to turn the mind away from samsaric occupations towards dharma, and translate complicated Buddhist precepts into easy to grasp explanations of the preciousness of life, karma, and how to life can be made meaningful before its inevitable end.In one song, Lama Pema Gyamtsho evokes an image of Kathmandu Valley's holy sites and in doing so orients the people of Nubri towards Kathmandu, rather than Lhasa.Boudha stupa is the great father Swoyambhu is the great mother The supreme pilgrimage places That are not found in other worlds are there Says Brown: "Their cosmology is usually organised in a mandala form. Usually there are two competing mandalas, of China and of Dharmashala, and Nepal is left out. But for the people of Nubri, Kathmandu is the centre.” Even so, the songs represent a Nubri-centred worldview rather than an acceptance of the dominance of Kathmandu.With Boudha as the father and Swayambhu as the mother, the other chaityas between them are supposed to be 'happy sons,' self-arisen from leftover stones. Like most folk art, the songs provide a way of challenging dominant ideas and reversing a community’s marginalised status vis-a-vis other power centres, and passing on its unique identity to future generations.Brown says each of Nepal’s Tibetan communities has a different music traditional with a unique identity. In Langtang he found musical harmony (playing more than one note at a time) more common in Western music.The references to philosophy and spirituality, however, may be in danger of being lost due to the popularity of other forms of music among youngsters who <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Nation-road-from-nowhere-to-nowhere,549" target="_blank" rel="noopener">migrate out of the high mountain villages</a> for study and work.But when he sees the same youth document their heritage with mobile phones, Brown is optimistic: "There are still young people who care deeply about local identity, so we don't need to worry about it yet. Hopefully, the music will be preserved and passed on."<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110714118/636903419c7e80680e037cafjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="854"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><h2>"I Go for Refuge to the Authentic Dharma"</h2><h2>"Kathmandu Pilgrimage Praise Song"</h2>Please listen! The secret ōm has (the five syllables): ma ni pad me hungI go for refuge to the excellent authentic dharmaPlease listen! Don’t habitually sleep like a cow, get up!Without sleeping, make offerings to the excellent deityPlease listen! Meditate on Avalokiteshvara with undistracted bodyrecite without distraction, enumerate the six syllablesPlease listen! Write the six syllables on fine paperOffer it to the hand of the Lord of DeathPlease listen! There is no point in worldly deedsWhile we are here we have to practice dharmaSeeing pilgrimage places at the weddingI vividly encountered KathmanduAn amazing spectacle aroseI received great blessings at the stupaBoudha stupa is the great fatherSwayambu is the great motherThe excess earth and stone between themAre the happy sonsIn the upper parts of the Kathmandu cityI heard a golden shawmIt wasn't a golden shawmIt was the speech of the mother and the ḍākinīsThe supreme pilgrimage placesthat are not found in other worlds are there

Tibetan music in Nepal's sacred valley

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