The Nepali Folk Music Revival

Kutumba  performing in Kathmandu, Kutumba has revived and improvised many old folk songs from various tribes of Nepal

Nepali Folk music is one of the most popular nepali genre all around the world. The thing about Nepali folk is that it is very diversified. There are dozens of tribes and culture in the small country and they all have their own kind of music. However, in popular culture, folk songs of Tamang, Gaiens, Sherpas, Gurungs, Newars are famous, geographically, these kind of music originated from hilly regions of the country. Folk songs had been popular even in the 60s and is still popular now but the influence of Rock n' Roll in the modern industry has diminished the popularity of folk music. 

Nonetheless, many Nepali artists like Jhalak Man Gandarbha (A Sarangi player), Diwas Gurung, Kutumba (band), Sur Sundha etc are still preserving folk music and improvising old folk songs but still keeping that nepali folk vibe alive. The folk music is local music and nepali people from hills and the mountains are generally singers and composers of these kind of music. Like the traditional African-American Blues, Field hollers or Bluegrass & Appalachian Music, Nepali folk is also sang locally while farming and in various festivals. Many tribes have many festivals in Nepal, and in these festivals they have their traditional songs that dates back to the medieval times. 

The current situation of Nepali Folk Music is that there are still very few bands that focuses on producing Nepali folk music. Although new young artists like Bipul Chettri and his band who are originally from Darjeeling are spreading Darjeeling folk music in Nepali music industry. Darjeeling is heavily populated and influenced by nepali culture and their music had been ignored for a long time. Chettri's ambition to spread the old and new folk songs he and his band created has attracted a whole new mass of young generation. He has also collaborated with many folk musicians and players like Kiran Nepali of the band "Kutumba" who is a sarangi player.

Searching For Nepali Folk Music

Terrence R. Bech (Picture By Amar Gurung)

Well, in the music industry only few kinds of Nepali folk are popular. Meanwhile there are so many tribes living in different corners of the country. Nobody had ever set on a journey to search for the folk songs of Nepal until Terrence R. Bech came to Nepal. Terrence R. Bech came to Nepal in 1964AD as a volunteer for Peace Corps. His journey through Nepal made him realise that how diversified the cultures were in Nepal and many of these cultures had their own cloths, traditions, language and customs, like everything else their music also differed and almost all of these tribes had their own music. Bech travelled 15,000 km across Nepal recording folk music, collecting musical instruments and translating lyrics. He traveled to remote districts with a backpack weighing 40 kg, and a porter carrying his Uher tape recorder and batteries. By the time he left Nepal in 1966, Bech had collected 260 hours of recordings in 400 open-reel phonotapes, 200 musical transcripts, 120 musical instruments, 7,500 song texts, 41 life history studies of Nepali musicians, along with thousands of photographs. These were housed in the Archive of Traditional Music at Indiana University in Bloomington... (read more on Songs Of Our Past - Nepali Times)