UN, IHC present 'Sounds of the Forests' -- Day 1

The UN Information Centre (UNIC) collaborated with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the India Habitat Centre in presenting 'Lok Sangeet Sammelan 2011', a two-day festival of folk music that brought together artistes from Manipur, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand. UNDP Country Director Caitlin Wiesen lauded the initiative, adding that it was important to provide such platforms for the promotion of indigenous traditions.
The festival began with a performance by the popular Naga musician Rewben Mashangva and his son Saka from Manipur. Known as the 'King of Naga Folk Blues', Mashangva not only uses the guitar and other traditional instruments to produce ethnic folk tunes, he has also modified other indigenous instruments to suit the western tonal scale. This was followed by a 'jatra dol', a theatrical form by a group from the Sunderbans in West Bengal. The artistes, performing for the first time outside the Sunderbans, powerfully portrayed the legend of Bon Bibi, the goddess of the forests, who is known to protect the people who depend on the forest for survival.

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News & Politics

Tags:

• UNIC
• India
• Bhutan
• UNDP
• India Habitat Centre
• Caitlin Wiesen
• indigenous
• folk
• music
• Chhattisgarh
• Manipur
• West Bengal Sunderbans
• Uttarakhand
• Rewben Mashangva
• Saka Mashangva
• Mahila Natya Sansthan
• Bastar Band
• Basanti Devi Bisht