Dhankuta grooms bring brides without Naumati bajas

By Our Correspondent

Dhankuta, March 31: Traditional musical instruments such as Panche and Naumati bajas played with five and nine instruments respectively are gradually disappearing, giving way to modern music and musical instruments.

Those musical instruments used to be played in marriage and sacred thread ceremonies and other festivals but nowadays those traditional instruments are completely swamped by modern bands and music.

The gradual waning of such instruments has posed threat to the livelihood of those, who make and play them.

"Now traditional bands have become useless with the excessive use of modern bands," says a 75-year-old Dhimro Panchkoti, resident of Dandagaon.

Recalling his days almost 30 years ago, he says how he used to be busy hopping from one ceremony to another. Certain rites were not performed until the panche baja was not played and in marriages the brides were sent away with the grooms only with the sounds and rhythms of the naumati bajas. He now fears that the modern bands may completely replace the traditional ones. Worse, he says, people do not seem to miss those musics.

Rudra Bahadur Tumba, chairman of Jitpur Village Development Committee (VDC), says with more people, trying to be modern, preferring modern music and musical bands, the traditional ones could be extinct. The extinction of those traditional instruments will endanger our folk culture and folk music.

Headmaster of the local high school also says those instruments are an important part of our tradition and culture. But he says the children now go for modern music and this does not augur well. The concerned sector has to take initiative to preserve and promote those musical instruments to preserve our culture and traditional music.

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