/ARTS WEEKLY/NEPAL: Pop Bands Put New Touch to Old Music, Sing to Peace

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Surendra Phuyal

KATHMANDU, Jul 6 2004 (IPS) - The ramshackle watchman’s quarter outside the two-storied house here is where the six members of the Nepathya, Nepal’s popular musical band, gather every afternoon.

Inside, they create, experiment, practise and rehearse various numbers. This time around, they are rehearsing ‘Machhi lai jaal pani taal pani, tara ma dukhilai ayena kaal pani’, meaning ‘both fishnet and lake for the fisherman, yet death continues to elude me, a poor fellow’.

"We learned this song from the traditional Gandarvas of west Nepal," explains softspoken Amrit Gurung, the lead vocalist, as he takes a break one recent afternoon. "We liked it because it mirrors our society, and the people and their hardships."

Originally from the Gandaki region in the western hills overlooking the Himalayan peaks, Gandarvas are traditional singers who eke out their living visiting from door to door, playing the ‘Sarangi’ instrument and singing ballads about mythological tragedies, tales or current affairs.

One of the hot original Gandarva songs in the market is about the tragic royal massacre of Jun. 1, 2001, when the entire family of King Birendra was killed by Crown Prince Dipendra, who later turned the gun on himself. ‘Raja lade Tribhuvan Sadanma’ – the king lay on the Tribhuvan Sadan inside the royal palace – is a famous number. But only on the streets.

The Gandarvas, the traditional charmers of west Nepal, may be finding it difficult to make a living and switching to other professions, but elite bands like ‘Nepathya’ are doing just fine by remixing and re-enacting performances that are now on the verge of extinction.

One difference between Gandarvas and Nepathya is this: Nepathya plays guitar – and drum and piano and high-tech instruments, but Gandharvas play their traditional three-string instrument, the ‘Sarangis’.

Earlier this year, ‘Nepathya’ released ‘Bhedako Uun Jasto (like sheep’s fur)’, an album featuring folk songs from rural areas. ‘Bhedako Uun…’, the title song, originally belongs to the minority Tamang and Sherpa communities in mountain settlements up north-west of Kathmandu.

In early July, the five members of ‘Nepathya’ performed at the biggest gathering of overseas Nepalis in the United States in the Phoenix, Arizona.

”We feel honoured, it is such a big gathering," says lead vocalist Gurung, who also pens lyrics, of the convention organised by the Association of Nepalese in America (ANA).

With Gurung in Nepathya’s first trip to the United States are his fellow band members – Dhruba Lama (drums), Daniel Don Karthak (bass guitar), Hari Maharjan (lead guitar), Nikhil Tuladhar (percussion) and Surak Thapa (key board); and Kiran Shrestha, team leader of ‘Nepa-laya’, a Kathmandu event management firm dedicated to reviving and popularising Nepali melodies.

The 14-year-band, formed by a group of creative youth from Pokhara valley in western Nepal, has already put out six albums. All are popular in the hills and plains of Nepal and north-east India, which has a sizeable population of ethnic Nepalese.

Another popular rock band redoing popular Nepali oldies and modern numbers and experimenting with western rock and roll music is 1974 AD. Ten years into its journey, 1974 AD is running neck-to-neck with ‘Nepathya’, churning out albums and getting the youngsters, the ‘zippies’, humming and dancing.

Last year, tens of thousands of young people turned out at the Dasharath Stadium in Kathmandu for a ‘Nepathya’ concert. The whole stadium, full of fans, followed 1974 AD’s lead vocalist Firoj Shyangden, when the band played ‘Dherai Dherai Aunchha Manma (My heart keeps feeling)’.

The band catapulted to fame after it dedicated its ‘Sambodhan timilai gardaichhu ma (I am humbly calling you) to the late King Birendra and his family after their death in a massacre in June 2001.

Also last year, the five-member band wrapped up a tour of the United States and Britain, performing before Nepali audiences in San Francisco, Colorado, Washington D.C. and New York and London.

In early June, it released its sixth album ‘Pinjadako Suga (the parrot of cage)’, which features traditional ballads penned by great Nepali literary figures like ‘Kabisiromani’ Lekh Nath Poudel. ‘Pinjadako Suga’, the title song, talks about human travails.

Five decades after poet laureate Poudel penned it, ‘Pinjadako Sunga’ has been heavy metalised by the immensely popular rock band. Other band members besides Shyangden (vocal and rhythm guitar) are Nirakar Yakthumba (bass guitar), Adrian (vocal and drum), Manoj Thapa (lead guitar), and Sanjya Sherstha (percussion).

As Nepal reels from an eight-year-old Maoist insurgency, this new breed of pop music bands like ‘Nepathya’ and ‘1974 AD’ are messengers for peace and social harmony.

Rock and roll music entered the Himalayan kingdom after western hippies explored the ‘hippie trail’ in Asia and put Kathmandu, pronounced Cat-Man-Do in the western world, at its centre. Four decades later, the historic and mystic city of Kathmandu has it all: rock, rap, hip-hop, folk and fusion.

From mid-April through mid-May, Nepathya was busy with its second ‘Education for Peace’ concert tour, a tour organised for the cause of peace and education. In all, 15,000 people turned out to see ‘Nepathya’ perform. The band performed in a total of 15 towns, and it raised a whopping 10 million Nepali rupees (140,000 U.S. dollars). The money went to the local public schools in the towns the band visited.

However, while Nepathya, 1974 AD and several other Nepali rock-pop bands may be doing fine, traditional singers like the Gandharvas are not.

The Maoist conflict has displaced most of them, forcing them to move to cities like Pokhara and Kathmandu, where they perform on the sidewalks and in local eateries instead.

"Our fans and listeners are everywhere: on the streets, inside shops and houses," says 10-year-old Rubin Gandharva, smiling.

He earns between 100 and 150 rupees, an amount hardly sufficient to keep himself and his parents alive after a day-long mobile performance on the streets of Kathmandu."Our life is filled with disappointments and sorrows," he says.