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Echoes from Tibet
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Echoes from Tibet

directed by Deben Bhattacharya, 1921-2001; produced by Deben Bhattacharya, 1921-2001, Open End Theatre (Montpelier, VT: Multicultural Media, 2004), 27 mins

Echoes From Tibet - Panoramic views of the high snow ranges provide the backdrop for the austere and rugged village life of Tibetans and Ladakhis, high in the the western Himalayas. "Echoes from Tibet" examines their shared social habits, Buddhist religion and customs. Tibetan script Harvesting and threshing; work...

Sample

Echoes from Tibet

directed by Deben Bhattacharya, 1921-2001; produced by Deben Bhattacharya, 1921-2001, Open End Theatre (Montpelier, VT: Multicultural Media, 2004), 27 mins
Description

Echoes From Tibet - Panoramic views of the high snow ranges provide the backdrop for the austere and rugged village life of Tibetans and Ladakhis, high in the the western Himalayas. "Echoes from Tibet" examines their shared social habits, Buddhist religion and customs. Tibetan script Harvesting and threshing; work songs; the vigorous yak dance - all these are explored in the first half of this film.

Next, we are taken to a Tibetan refugee settlem...

Echoes From Tibet - Panoramic views of the high snow ranges provide the backdrop for the austere and rugged village life of Tibetans and Ladakhis, high in the the western Himalayas. "Echoes from Tibet" examines their shared social habits, Buddhist religion and customs. Tibetan script Harvesting and threshing; work songs; the vigorous yak dance - all these are explored in the first half of this film.

Next, we are taken to a Tibetan refugee settlement for a look at daily life and work. Men and women work at typical handicrafts while singing work songs. Tibetan women make carpet trimmings with accompanying songs. They collect their children from a day nursery; going home and working at their spinning wheels.

A huge incense burner with rising smoke welcomes a visit from his holiness, the Dalai Lama to the Tibetan Children's Village at Dharamsala in the western foothills of the Himalayas. The film ends with an extract from a ritual dance-drama staged for the occasion of the Dalai Lama's visit, followed by a dance of the Black Hat Sect. A wonderful and intimate look at these fascinating people.

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Field of Study
Anthropology
Content Type
Documentary
Contributor
Deben Bhattacharya, 1921-2001, Open End Theatre
Author / Creator
Deben Bhattacharya, 1921-2001
Date Published / Released
1980, 2004
Publisher
Multicultural Media
Topic / Theme
Folk music, Ladakhi
Copyright Message
© Open End Theater & Deben Bhattacharya Ltd. 1980
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Raga
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Raga

presented by Yehudi Menuhin, 1916-1999; produced by Bernard Queenan, fl. 1967 and Deben Bhattacharya, 1921-2001 (Montpelier, VT: Multicultural Media), 27 mins
The great classical violinist, Yehudi Menuhin, introduces "Raga" with an explanation of the Morning Raga, Ahira Bhairava. This is followed by footage of that same raga being played by musicians in Jaipur in Rajasthan, still one of the most traditional states in India. The program includes the complex process of ma...
Sample

Raga

presented by Yehudi Menuhin, 1916-1999; produced by Bernard Queenan, fl. 1967 and Deben Bhattacharya, 1921-2001 (Montpelier, VT: Multicultural Media), 27 mins
Description
The great classical violinist, Yehudi Menuhin, introduces "Raga" with an explanation of the Morning Raga, Ahira Bhairava. This is followed by footage of that same raga being played by musicians in Jaipur in Rajasthan, still one of the most traditional states in India. The program includes the complex process of making of the various stringed instruments (sitar, sarod, tanpur, etc.) for the playing of the Raga. Menuhin explains the masculine or fe... The great classical violinist, Yehudi Menuhin, introduces "Raga" with an explanation of the Morning Raga, Ahira Bhairava. This is followed by footage of that same raga being played by musicians in Jaipur in Rajasthan, still one of the most traditional states in India. The program includes the complex process of making of the various stringed instruments (sitar, sarod, tanpur, etc.) for the playing of the Raga. Menuhin explains the masculine or feminine character and emotional content of each Raga and its appropriate time of day for playing. Included is a complete performance of the devotional morning Raga, Sindh Bhairavi, played by the celebrated sitarist, Halim Jaffer Khan. Also includes scenes of sitars being built. Show more Show less
Field of Study
Anthropology
Content Type
Documentary
Contributor
Bernard Queenan, fl. 1967, Deben Bhattacharya, 1921-2001
Author / Creator
Yehudi Menuhin, 1916-1999
Date Published / Released
1969
Publisher
Multicultural Media
Topic / Theme
Raga
Copyright Message
© 1969 Argo Record Company London England
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Shorts RAI Film Festival 2021, Gula: Music for a Sacred Time
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Shorts RAI Film Festival 2021, Gula: Music for a Sacred Time

directed by Remigiusz Sowa, fl. 2010-2017; produced by Anna Sowa, fl. 2012-2014, in Shorts RAI Film Festival 2021 (London, England: Royal Anthropological Institute, 2020), 14 mins
This video introduces the rich and varied Hindu-Buddhist religious and ritual musical heritage of the ancient royal city of Bhaktapur (Nepal).
Sample

Shorts RAI Film Festival 2021, Gula: Music for a Sacred Time

directed by Remigiusz Sowa, fl. 2010-2017; produced by Anna Sowa, fl. 2012-2014, in Shorts RAI Film Festival 2021 (London, England: Royal Anthropological Institute, 2020), 14 mins
Description
This video introduces the rich and varied Hindu-Buddhist religious and ritual musical heritage of the ancient royal city of Bhaktapur (Nepal).
Field of Study
Anthropology
Content Type
Documentary
Contributor
Anna Sowa, fl. 2012-2014
Author / Creator
Remigiusz Sowa, fl. 2010-2017
Date Published / Released
2020
Publisher
Royal Anthropological Institute
Series
Shorts RAI Film Festival 2021
Speaker / Narrator
Panchalal Lachimasyu
Person Discussed
Panchalal Lachimasyu
Topic / Theme
Religious practices, Drums, Ethnomusicology, Hinduism, Buddhism, Nepali
Copyright Message
Copyright © 2020 Remigiusz Sowa
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The Song Collector
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The Song Collector

directed by Erik Koto, fl. 2016; produced by Stanzin Dawa Chonjor, fl. 2016; performed by Morup Namgyal, 1947- (Portland, OR: Collective Eye Films, 2016), 54 mins
Set high in the Indian Himalaya, Ladakh is home to a rich Buddhist culture and an ancient tradition of folk singing. In the 1960s as economic development thrust change upon Ladakh, Morup Namgyal, Ladakh's greatest folk artist, began his lifelong efforts to preserve his beloved folk songs. Using song as the medium,...
Sample

The Song Collector

directed by Erik Koto, fl. 2016; produced by Stanzin Dawa Chonjor, fl. 2016; performed by Morup Namgyal, 1947- (Portland, OR: Collective Eye Films, 2016), 54 mins
Description
Set high in the Indian Himalaya, Ladakh is home to a rich Buddhist culture and an ancient tradition of folk singing. In the 1960s as economic development thrust change upon Ladakh, Morup Namgyal, Ladakh's greatest folk artist, began his lifelong efforts to preserve his beloved folk songs. Using song as the medium, Morup and his peers sparked a social movement that would bring about profound and enduring change in Ladakh. It was a movement built o... Set high in the Indian Himalaya, Ladakh is home to a rich Buddhist culture and an ancient tradition of folk singing. In the 1960s as economic development thrust change upon Ladakh, Morup Namgyal, Ladakh's greatest folk artist, began his lifelong efforts to preserve his beloved folk songs. Using song as the medium, Morup and his peers sparked a social movement that would bring about profound and enduring change in Ladakh. It was a movement built on education, tradition, and preservation. Show more Show less
Field of Study
World Music
Content Type
Documentary
Performer / Ensemble
Morup Namgyal, 1947-
Contributor
Stanzin Dawa Chonjor, fl. 2016
Author / Creator
Erik Koto, fl. 2016, Morup Namgyal, 1947-
Date Published / Released
2016
Publisher
Collective Eye Films
Topic / Theme
Folk Song, Ladakhi
Copyright Message
Copyright © The Song Collector, LLC 2016. All Rights Reserved.
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This is A Music: Reclaiming An Untouchable Drum
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This is A Music: Reclaiming An Untouchable Drum

directed by Zoe C. Sherinian; produced by Zoe C. Sherinian (Sherinian Productions, 2011), 1 hour 13 mins
This ethnomusicological documentary is about the psychological and economic transformation of a group of Dalit [formerly called outcaste or untouchable] parai frame drummers from a village near Paramagudi, Tamil Nadu, South India. The internal shift in the self-perception that these drummers undergo includes three...
Sample

This is A Music: Reclaiming An Untouchable Drum

directed by Zoe C. Sherinian; produced by Zoe C. Sherinian (Sherinian Productions, 2011), 1 hour 13 mins
Description
This ethnomusicological documentary is about the psychological and economic transformation of a group of Dalit [formerly called outcaste or untouchable] parai frame drummers from a village near Paramagudi, Tamil Nadu, South India. The internal shift in the self-perception that these drummers undergo includes three interwoven threads of musical identity: the identity of the drum, of the music they play, and of the status of the drummers. Through t... This ethnomusicological documentary is about the psychological and economic transformation of a group of Dalit [formerly called outcaste or untouchable] parai frame drummers from a village near Paramagudi, Tamil Nadu, South India. The internal shift in the self-perception that these drummers undergo includes three interwoven threads of musical identity: the identity of the drum, of the music they play, and of the status of the drummers. Through the lens of rarely filmed folk performances and the experience of an American female ethnomusicologist who comes to study with the group Kurinji Malar, we see a group of nine drummers trying to eke out a living while negotiating ongoing caste discrimination in their village. The Hindu caste system constructs parai drummers and their drum as polluted because they play for funerals. As they have professionalized, however, they reconstruct their performance as “music” and their identity as “worldly.” The film also explores the economic options of these musicians as laborers. Two of the best drummers are tempted to limit their “drumset” performances to auspicious festival occasions because they are able to make enough money and gain social status as construction workers. Other members who work as field laborers or shepherd goats are completely dependent on drumming to supplement their income. The narrative of this film focuses on the cultural debate among these drummers over whether they should reclaim the term parai (associated by many with the drummer’s “degraded” caste name Paraiyar) or they should continue to use the English term “drumset,” which carries middleclass status. When the drummers get an opportunity to go to the large cosmopolitan city of Chennai to participate in the Chennai Sangamam folk festival, they experience very different treatment at the hands of both the festival organizers and the multi-caste, multi-class urban audience. On their way to the festival they are shocked to find the extensive use of the term “parai-attam” or parai dance in all of the festival advertisement. One of the drummers asks, “Why do they still associate us with the ‘Paraiyan’ caste? Why won’t they let us walk freely in society?” When we interview them soon after they arrive and then at the end of their festival week in Chennai, we see, however, that their overwhelmingly positive reception has greatly shifted their self-perception and value of village based folk artists. Further, they decide to (re)embrace of the term “parai.” It becomes clear that experiencing this appreciation helps the Kurinji Malar drummers reinforce a sense of pride in their drumming as valued music where as previously it was easy for them to internalize these practices as degraded. The question then becomes; can they sustain these changes back in the village? This film shows that changing how parai drummers identify their art reflects the process of changing self-identity through musical performance possible for those still considered by many as “untouchables.” However, this case ultimately shows that complete change in presentation of self in the village context is difficult because of the economic dependence of outcaste drummers on the village middle castes who continue to practice casteism. Woven throughout the film are dynamic and rare examples of village folk dances like karagattam, kummi and oiylattam, oppari funeral lament, stick fighting, and drumming as well as the voices of the drummers and local activists, who tell the story of the process of working for the economic and social liberation of the oppressed Dalits of India through the folk arts. Show more Show less
Field of Study
World Music
Content Type
Documentary
Contributor
Zoe C. Sherinian
Author / Creator
Zoe C. Sherinian
Date Published / Released
2011
Publisher
Sherinian Productions
Topic / Theme
Folk music, Spirituality, Religious beliefs, Ethnomusicology, Drums, Tamil
Copyright Message
Copyright (c) 2011 Sherinian Productions LLC
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Unwritten Music of the Orient, Adaptable Kingdom: Music and Dance from Nepal (Himalayas)
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Unwritten Music of the Orient, Adaptable Kingdom: Music and Dance from Nepal (Himalayas)

directed by Deben Bhattacharya, 1921-2001; produced by Seabourne Enterprises, in Unwritten Music of the Orient (Montpelier, VT: Multicultural Media, 2004), 27 mins
This film takes the viewer to a kingdom in the Himalayas, where tribal animism, Buddhism, and Hinduism live in harmony. In the folklore of Nepal, religious mask-dances with the sound of large barrel drums illustrate the age-old battle between good and evil. We also hear a gayen, the itinerant singer of the Nepales...
Sample

Unwritten Music of the Orient, Adaptable Kingdom: Music and Dance from Nepal (Himalayas)

directed by Deben Bhattacharya, 1921-2001; produced by Seabourne Enterprises, in Unwritten Music of the Orient (Montpelier, VT: Multicultural Media, 2004), 27 mins
Description
This film takes the viewer to a kingdom in the Himalayas, where tribal animism, Buddhism, and Hinduism live in harmony. In the folklore of Nepal, religious mask-dances with the sound of large barrel drums illustrate the age-old battle between good and evil. We also hear a gayen, the itinerant singer of the Nepalese folk tradition, side-by-side with temple songs.
Field of Study
Anthropology
Content Type
Documentary
Contributor
Seabourne Enterprises, Richard Baker, 1925-
Author / Creator
Deben Bhattacharya, 1921-2001
Date Published / Released
1972, 2004
Publisher
Multicultural Media
Series
Unwritten Music of the Orient
Speaker / Narrator
Richard Baker, 1925-
Topic / Theme
Traditional Folk, Nepali
Copyright Message
© Seabourne Enterprises (Film Productions) Ltd. 1973
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Village and Town Music of India and Nepal
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Village and Town Music of India and Nepal

directed by Roderic C. Knight (Montpelier, VT: Multicultural Media, 2004), 1 hour 3 mins

The forested hills and valleys of the eastern Narmada River in Madhya Pradesh, India attracted Rudyard Kipling a century ago, and more recently, for different reasons, ethnomusicologist Roderic C. Knight. Seeking to document the little-known musics of the region, Knight packed a notebook, movie and still cameras,...

Sample

Village and Town Music of India and Nepal

directed by Roderic C. Knight (Montpelier, VT: Multicultural Media, 2004), 1 hour 3 mins
Description

The forested hills and valleys of the eastern Narmada River in Madhya Pradesh, India attracted Rudyard Kipling a century ago, and more recently, for different reasons, ethnomusicologist Roderic C. Knight. Seeking to document the little-known musics of the region, Knight packed a notebook, movie and still cameras, and a tape recorder onto his motorcycle and sought out the musicians in their villages. The results are presented in these scenes: twel...

The forested hills and valleys of the eastern Narmada River in Madhya Pradesh, India attracted Rudyard Kipling a century ago, and more recently, for different reasons, ethnomusicologist Roderic C. Knight. Seeking to document the little-known musics of the region, Knight packed a notebook, movie and still cameras, and a tape recorder onto his motorcycle and sought out the musicians in their villages. The results are presented in these scenes: twelve musical performances and numerous scenes from daily life in 1982. At the time, Super 8 sound movie film was the medium of choice; the digital mini-cam was far in the future. These films, converted to video and digitally edited with the able assistance of Elio Trabal (Oberlin College 2004), capture events of two types: rural music that is today as isolated as it was then, and urban festive music that is as vibrant and current today as it was when filmed.

PART I. VILLAGE MUSIC OF MADHYA PRADESH 30:30
Filmed in Dindori District and Jabalpur

1. The Pardhan bana, a three-string fiddle
2. The Gogia Pardhan bin-baja, a strummed harp
3. Gond Stilt Dance and “Kabadi” game by school boys
4. Gond and Pardhan at work on farms and roads
5. The Ahir algoza, a bamboo fingerhole trumpet

PART II. TOWN MUSIC OF NORTH INDIA AND NEPAL 37:00
Filmed in Nagpur, Raipur, Bhopal, Jabalpur, Chandigarh, and Kathmandu

1. Daily Work Scenes: carting, threshing, pottery making
2. Itinerant Musicians sing “Matti ke Putle”
3. A Sikh Celebration of Baisakhi: singers with harmonium, tabla, tumbi, sarangi, and tudd
4. A Sikh Wedding: the street parade, the welcoming
5. A Gaine Singer of Nepal with sarangi

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Date Written / Recorded
1982
Field of Study
World Music
Content Type
Documentary
Contributor
Roderic C. Knight
Author / Creator
Roderic C. Knight
Date Published / Released
2004
Publisher
Multicultural Media
Topic / Theme
Town life, Folk music, Nepali, Adivasi, Dravidians
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