FW04030
Music of Bhutan
Various Artists
Notes -
The familiar clash of cymbals pulses from a nearby monastery. Men at an archery match laugh, teasing each other with folk lyrics. A woman wraps her traditional kira dress and prepares for a days work at her family's loom. The air is thick with the smell of butter tea, and from the valleys resonate the muttering storms of Druk Yul the Land of the Thunder Dragon the country known to the world as Bhutan.
Aided by the region’s physical isolation of the Eastern Himalaya, the Bhutanese have a carefully-paced response to modernization. The Royal Government of Bhutan opened its borders to tourist travel in 1974 and has regulated international communication ever since. The Bhutanese people proactively embrace and preserve their Himalayan Buddhist traditions, protecting them from the rapid challenges of modernity.
The soundscapes collected in Music of the Bhutan offer invaluable documentation and serve as a pillar by which the success of Bhutan's cultural preservation can be measured. Anthropologist and early Himalayan traveler, Dr. Johann S. Szuszkiewicz, produced Music of the Bhutan in 1978, a time when scholars had just begun to study Bhutanese music, in an era when many Western recordings of the Himalaya focused only on Buddhist liturgical music. Despite inherent political, developmental, and demographic changes throughout the years, the very songs, instrumental music, dances, and spoken word compiled in Music of the Bhutan are often still heard in Bhutan today. Bhutan is a nation fervently preserving tradition and of a people with endless enthusiasm for their heritage.
Country(s) - Bhutan
Keyword(s) - World music
Instrument(s) - Bamboo flute; Chee wang; Dram yen; Yang qin
Year of Release -
1978
Record Label -
Folkways Records
Source Archive -
Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
Credits -
Produced by J.S. Szuszkiewicz ; Design by Ronald Clyne
Tracks -
101
Introduction of orchestra
Bhutanese musicians
Duration:0:41
6926
False
102
Demonstration of individual instruments
Bhutanese musicians
Duration:2:10
7878
False
103
Ging Tsholing
Bhutanese musicians, dancers
Duration:1:44
7879
False
104
Damitshi Ngachham
Bhutanese musicians, dancers
Duration:1:10
7880
False
105
Guni tashi yangchha
Bhutanese musicians, dancers
Duration:1:47
7881
False
106
Temple sounds
Temple monks, pilgrims
Duration:3:15
7882
False
107
A Festive crowd
Audience members
Duration:1:42
7883
False
108
Sounds from the south, Maruni dance/Chhapani Ley chhan chhan song/Song of the Mountains/ Circus comes to the village
Bhutanese musicians
Duration:10:46
7884
False
109
Dram yen/ Bamboo flute/Orchestra
Bhutanese musicians
Duration:3:45
7888
False
110
Tribute to the King/ Mountain of God/ Golden birds of the forest/ Song to the mountain forests
Male singers, female singers, orchestra
Duration:13:19
7891
False
111
Ganchen yumi lobdah/ Yu gi gangte theom bi gi schola/ Samten ling
Central School students
Duration:4:26
7895
False