Silk Road Tour - Sala - Abigail Washburn & The Village

Sala is a Tibetan and Qiang folk song that traditionally accompanies a dance around a fire. This video features performances from Xi'ning, Yinchuan, Lanzhou, Hohot and Guangzhou, all stops on the 2011 Silk Road Tour.

One of the most exciting moments of the tour happened in an unlikely place, the vocational High School of Xi'ning, Qinghai Province.

It was clear immediately that the majority of the students were Tibetan and the fact that I was speaking mandarin Chinese through most of the show didn't mean that everyone was understanding what I was saying... in fact I wasn't sure how much the kids were even enjoying the show because their reaction was much cooler and more pensive than the other audiences we had played for.

Our last performance of the hour long show was 'Sala,' a song I learned from children in the 2008 earthquake disaster zone. As soon as we began singing kids jumped out of their seats and began singing along, waving their arms, and within seconds almost 30 young women had taken to the stage and started doing the 'fire dance' that goes with this famous Tibetan folk song.

It was an exhilarating moment, but every time we got to perform it with local collaborators for an audience and feel and hear them singing along it was totally inspiring. In this video you'll see moments from the vocational school as well as moments in theaters in Lanzhou, Yinchuan and Hohhot. You'll see instruments like the pipa, erhu, guzheng, chinese hammered
dulcimer & dizi.

'Sala' continually reminds me of my time in Sichuan during the earthquake recovery and how music and the interconnectedness of humanity can heal and inspire.

http://abigailwashburn.com

Full Silk Road Tour Playlist:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AbigailWashburn#grid/user/8A4BE13075AAFBDF

Tour Map:
‪http://g.co/maps/dnh73‬

Shot & Edited by Luke Mines

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Abigail Washburn
• China
• Silk Road
• tibet
• qiang
• tibetan
• folk
• song
• qinghai
• village
• fire
• dance
• diplomacy
• 锅庄
• 西藏
• 羌族
• 藏族
• 民歌
• 舞蹈
• 丝绸之路
• 西宁青海
• banjo
• strings

[Dorain1969]

Beautiful as always Abigail. The song & pictures easily bring a tear to the eye. Would that happen to be Brittany Haas helping out on the fiddle?

[amina0311]

So beautiful!!

[shuaiflip]

Abigail ......may peace and happiness follow you always. Thanks for sharing!

[eugenff]

Super.Just go forward on you way,Abby

[fredkoning]

Excellent video