ISLAMABAD: The National Institute of Folk and Traditional Heritage (Lok Virsa) carried out an extensive research fieldwork in Gilgit-Baltistan to document and promote its indigenous folk culture and craft heritage.

Executive Director Lok Virsa Shahera Shahid stated that in pursuance of Lok Virsa Ordinance promulgated by the government of Pakistan in 2002, the major responsibility assigned to the institute was research, collection, documentation, preservation and dissemination of Pakistan's traditional culture.

It includes both tangible and intangible cultural heritage, said a press release issued here on Monday.

Recognising the need, the new management of Lok Virsa deputed a five-member team of professionals, headed by Anwaarul Haq, the deputy director (museum), on a museum-related research field tour of Gilgit-Baltistan in June.

The team was assigned the task to authenticate the data of craftspeople already registered with Lok Virsa to identify new unexplored talent of master artisans, folk artists, folk musicians and folk dance groups as well as to make ethnological/craft collections from craftspeople for the Pakistan National Museum of Ethnology, popularly known as the Heritage Museum, at Shakaparian in Islamabad.

Five-member team carries out field work to document indigenous folk culture of the area

The team undertook the assignment between June 19 and June 29 by adopting the mechanism of interviews of traditional practitioners, on-location visits to workplaces in their hometowns, making audio visual and photographic documentation of relevant crafts, craftspeople, folk artists and musicians.

The team covered six districts of Gilgit-Baltistan: Gilgit, Hunza-Nagar, Ghizer, Skardu, Gaunche and Astor, including their remotest villages and far-flung areas. As many as 50 master artisans and 25 folk artists and musicians have been authenticated and identified along with their detailed documentations.

Traditional house in Gilgit-Baltistan.

During the visit, the team also enlisted 15 special persons in Karimabad, Hunza, who have been practicing the dying craft of Sharma weaving. Sharma is a traditional floor rug of Gilgit-Baltistan made from the hair of yak, goat and sheep wool.

It is a time-consuming craft and requires a lot of hard work and dedication.

The team also recorded an artist, Niaz Hunzai, in Karimabad, who beautifully plays the traditional flute (Surnai) and imparting the skill to the younger generation.

The important craft areas focused in the tour included embroidery, Sharma/carpet weaving, traditional musical instruments making, basket weaving, stone carving, woodwork, jewellery, traditional embroidered dresses/costumes, etc.

Lok Virsa team also collected a number of important artifacts/crafts/ethnological material from artisans for the Heritage Museum.The team also documented a typical/traditional Gilgit-Baltistan house in a remote village of Ghizer.

Before starting their field work, the team held a meeting with Saadia Danish, the minister/adviser for information, culture, tourism and youth affairs, and sought the cooperation of her department in implementation of the task.

The team held interactions/consultations with the representatives of GB culture department and office-bearers of the Gilgit Arts Council, Hunza Arts Council, Ghizer Arts Council, the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP) and Karakorum Area Development Foundation (KADO) wherein certain matters relating to cooperation between Lok Virsa and the community-based cultural bodies came under discussions.

Based on the report of the field work, Lok Virsa is planning to nominate local voluntary research coordinators in major districts of Gilgit-Baltistan for undertaking a series of activities, hold art and craft festivals in collaboration with the GB culture department and arts councils in major cities and create a new three dimensional display on “Traditional house of GB” at the heritage museum in Islamabad.

Published in Dawn, July 1st, 2014