folk music
Champion of Lepcha Culture Dies
Sonam Tshering Lepcha, a major champion of the Lepcha culture, died at age 92 in Kalimpong on July 30. His death was noted by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee, and by a range of major Indian news sources. A tribute last week summarized his many accomplishments and […]
Nubian Singing and Dancing
In traditional Nubian culture, an important aspect of wedding celebrations was the singing and dancing performed as part of the lengthy ceremonies. Those traditions have been fading, however, as the ways of Old Nubia—before the closing of the Aswan High Dam—increasingly become a remote memory. But at least one group of Nubian performers in Cairo […]
A Zapotec Renaissance Man
A Zapotec physicist who was originally from Juchitán, Oaxaca, is planning to translate Sir Isaac Newton’s Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, an essential work of western science, into his native language. According to an article in Mexico News Daily, Feliciano Carrasco Regalado is confident that his translation will be useful. In contrast to his detractors who […]
Lepcha Traditional Music
A group of seven friends have formed a band in Sikkim in order to preserve the Lepcha language and to help popularize traditional Lepcha folk music, both of which are endangered. A news story in the magazine Eclectic Northeast last week described the progress, and setbacks, of the Lepcha folk-fusion band Sofiyum. The founder of […]
