Echoes from the Himalayas documentary features Nepali musicians
POLO Stories has released Echoes from the Himalayas, a documentary featuring Folk Lok’s Program Manager Pushpa Palanchoke as the POLO woman from Nepal along with Nepal’s indigenous musicians.
Pushpa is one of the ten women from around the world whose story has been featured. She is an applied ethnomusicologist who started Folk Lok, a community-based music program managed by Satori Center for the Arts, three years ago. The program has been working with the Tahnani Dapha Khalah, a Newa indigenous music group, in Tahnani, Kirtipur to revitalize traditional and indigenous music practices like Dapha music. With Folk Lok’s support, Tahnani Dapha Khalah has been conducting apprenticeship programs, which makes space for women in a traditionally exclusively male practice.
After being a part of such apprenticeship programs, the women of Tahnani have performed on various platforms such as Echoes in the Valley Festival of Music and Bunga Mahotsav. In the documentary, too, they perform a Dapha song titled Shreeta Kamala and share what music means to them, how it has changed their lives, and how it has given them agency. It also includes the story of Barta Gandharva, a sarangi player, for whom music is like ‘medicine’.
The documentary highlights the importance of preserving indigenous music in practice rather than in archives. “Music is woven into each part of our lives - from birth to death,” says Pushpa, especially indigenous music. The documentary includes a reprise of Sunaula Baadal with Adishree Dhungana on guitar and Yaju Acharya in flute, a song that Pushpa wrote with her former band Mi Ku, a Dapha song titled Shreeta Kamala performed by Tahnani Dapha Khalah, Jay Jogini a Dapha song learned from Dapha master Tri Ratna Manandhar, and Garib bhai janminu paryo, a song by Barta Gandharva.
The documentary is available to view HERE.
POLO Stories creates, promotes, and disseminates documentaries focused on entrepreneurship, education, and art, emphasizing social impact. The target is to film a story in every country of the world, prioritizing low and middle-income nations. So far, it has featured stories of women from Nepal, India, Pakistan, Georgia, Columbia, and South Africa.
For more information:
Sachi Mulmi (9823375198)
