Video: Half shot about 3500 Kilometers away from Kashmir. Half in Kashmir.
Background score: An old recording of a Kashmiri song by Raj Begum
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Tourist Guide, 1960
Video: A travel guide for Kashmir published in September 1960 by Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity,, Ministry of I&B., for the Deptt. Tourism, Govt. of India, New Delhi. Printed in Bombay.
Audio: Kashmiri music from film ‘Magic of the Mountains’ (1955) by Mushir Ahmed for Film Division. The first song is the famous lament of Habba Khatoon (16th century).
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Postcards from Kashmir
A photo presentation on vintage postcards of Kashmir shared generously by Michael Thomas of Pipal Press from his personal collection. These were collected by his wife Jean Thomas.
Music courtesy of RaviMech Studio
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Although I have added captions to the video, here’s the listing details of 36 images provided by Michael Thomas.
1
00:00:05,000 –> 00:00:09,000
Srinagar, Kashmir – writing on side. 1903.
2
00:00:10,000 –> 04:06:40,000
Shepherdess, Kashmir. [Also, known as ‘the shepherd’s daughter”, from the book ‘The Charm of Kashmir’ (1920)]
3
00:00:29,400 –> 00:00:40,000
Mur Canal. Nalla-e-Mar.
4
00:00:46,000 –> 00:00:50,000
Nautch Girl
5
00:00:58,000 –> 00:01:04,000
A Kashmir Boat Girl
6
00:01:07,000 –> 00:01:20,000
A Boatman
7
00:01:22,000 –> 00:01:26,000
Kashmir Dungas
8
00:01:28,000 –> 00:01:34,000
Kashmir Woman Spinning
9
00:01:35,000 –> 00:01:45,000
A Peasant Girl, Kashmir
10
00:01:50,000 –> 00:01:54,000
Srinagar Above 7th Bridge, Kashmir
11
00:01:55,000 –> 00:01:59,000
Srinagar, River View from bridge
12
00:02:00,000 –> 00:02:11,000
Mar Canal
13
00:02:12,000 –> 00:02:16,000
Srinagar and bridge of Shops
14
00:02:18,000 –> 00:02:24,000
City and the third Bridge
15
00:02:26,000 –> 00:02:34,000
Shalamar Gardens
16
00:02:36,000 –> 00:02:42,000
Nishat Bagh
17
00:02:45,000 –> 00:02:47,000
Bara Mola (Baramulla/Varmul)
18
00:02:48,000 –> 00:02:53,000
A houseboat at Baramulla
19
00:02:55,000 –> 00:03:00,000
Town of Baramulla (Wrong caption, actually view of Srinagar)
20
00:03:03,000 –> 00:03:12,000
Dal Lake
21
00:03:16,000 –> 00:03:21,000
Crossing Woolar Lake
22
00:03:23,000 –> 00:03:30,000
Kashmir in Winter
23
00:03:34,000 –> 00:03:40,000
Srinagar, The Palace
24
00:03:43,000 –> 00:03:48,000
A Dungar or Kashmir Boat
25
00:03:50,000 –> 00:03:53,000
Lotus Lilies, Dhal Lake
26
00:03:56,000 –> 00:03:58,000
Photograph of Dal Lake. 1946.
27
00:04:01,000 –> 00:04:06,000
Boatman, Dall Lake
28
00:04:09,000 –> 00:04:14,000
Kashmir, Moonshee, Bach, Commissioner’s Boat
29
00:04:17,000 –> 00:04:23,000
Dall Lake. 1930
30
00:04:27,000 –> 00:04:31,000
The Presidency, Srinagar
31
00:04:33,000 –> 00:04:40,000
Srinagar, Another Bridge [Probably, Baramulla Bridge ]
32
00:04:43,000 –> 00:04:50,000
Gulmarg
33
00:04:54,000 –> 00:04:58,000
Pastoral View, Sind Valley
34
00:05:00,000 –> 00:05:03,000
Ladakhis and Yaks, Sind Valley
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Maybe, sometime soon I will make another presentation on the postcards in my collection.
On a side note, I wish more Kashmiris would start using captions for their video, especially on music video.
Flying to Kashmir
It’s not so far
There’s just a mountain
And at night
we can always fly
Music: Claudio Arrau playing Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata”,The Piano Sonata No. 14 in C minor. Video: Flying from Jammu to Srinagar
Mobius Kashmir
Video: A geometrical representation of Kashmir
Audio: A song by Tibet Bakal
Ja’tee tee, Ritual Burning of Kangri
I witnessed the scene for the first and only time probably in the beginning of spring of year 1989. I must have been seven when I saw my uncle dancing with a burning Kangri. That was the last time I witnessed the ritual of Ja’tee tee. The scene stuck in my mind. The joy of it. Then we moved to Jammu in 1990 and that was that.
In Jammu, this year, after spending months trying to motivate my uncle, I finally got him to reenact the ritual around this Teela Aetham (‘Eigth of the oil/sesame’, held on the 8th day of the bright fortnight of Phalguna month of the lunar calendar).
The ritual is simple. We pick an old worn out Kangri, take out its earthen pot, fill the remenant wooden remains with dry grass, tie a rope to it one of the handles, set the Kangri on fire, hurl is around in circles singing: Ja’tee tee, Ja’tee tee… It’s alight, it’s afire.
In Kashmir the ritual would be held on a river bank and at the end, the lit Kangri would be hurled into the river. This Pandit ritual symbolized end of winter and the beginning of spring.
I made this short video and later showed it to my grandmother who then remembered an old ditty for Ja’tee tee.
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Music and Images, rare
Update: I had shared the entire album ‘Kashmir: Traditional Songs And Dances. Vol II, 1974’ on Mediafire, but they seem to have recently removed it from their server ( possibly due to copyright thingy). Now my problem is: I had the album on my computer, but then I lost my all data last month thanks to a hard disk crash. I had it on my phone but I lost my phone too a couple of months back. But I really want it back. Last I checked at least 100 people had downloaded it. I would be thankful if someone would be kind enough share it back with me.
video link
video link
A bunch of rare vintage Kashmir photographs, most of them already posted at this blog. The music is an instrumental piece from David Lewiston‘s ‘Kashmir: Traditional Songs And Dances. Vol II’ recorded in Srinagar in 1976. I had been searching for this album for a longtime and finally found in the archives of Tonal Bride. Mohanlal Aima was one of the consultants for this incredible album which among others had performances by legendary artists like Muhammad Abdullah Tibetbaqal and Zoon Begum.
The only Mohanlal Aima track in this album is a wedding song. Download the album here [mediafire link]. His more famous work ‘Bumbro Bumbro’ can be found on Kashmir: Traditional Songs And Dances. Vol I recorded by David Lewiston in 1974. This album one is still not available.
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Gul Gulshan Gulfam
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Kashmiri Folk Music, recorded in 1986 by Warren Senders
Previously:
Continuing…
Warren Senders, the leader of the indo-jazz ensemble Anti-Gravity, is a talented composer/musician who has studied and rendered Hindustani music for over 20 years. [check out the Website of Warren Senders]
On March 21 1986, Warren Senders enjoyed some traditional Kashmiri music aboard the houseboat of musician Ghulam Mohammed Ahangar. By the end of the performance, Warren Senders had recorded around 90 minutes of pure traditional Kashmiri music.
Now recently, Warren Senders started uploading these recording at his wonderful Youtube channel.
In fact, has already uploaded around 60 minutes of the recording, setting them to beautiful photographs of Kashmir shot by himself.
Here’s a link to the beautiful recordings (have also embedded some recording that I really found amazing):
“Three Kashmiri musicians: Ghulam Mohammed Ahangar, Abdul Aziz Parvez and Moiuddin Bhat, recorded in Srinagar, March 21, 1986. This video is the first of a series of Kashmiri traditional music. The presentation begins with a 20-minute suite of four instrumental melodies for rabab, sarangi and harmonium.”
In which the musician set, tune and play their instruments.
Is that actaully a Heart beat in the background?
Kashmiri Traditional Melody for Rabab, Sarangi and Nuht
- Kashmiri Melody for Sarangi and Nuht
- Kashmiri Music for Rabab and Nuht
Amazing stuff to say the least!
And
- Kashmiri Love Song composed by 18th century Kashmiri poet Rasool Mir -part1, -part2
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roz’eya na roz’eya. Song.
3:41 AM April 2009
I was told that the lyrics for this song were written by great Kashmiri poet Moti Lal Saqi
