ilgit-Baltistan has a rich legacy of traditions and culture with a huge tourism potential but folk musicians of the area are concerned about their craft and language disappearing.

There have been some heartening attempts to revive indigenous folk music. Emerging folk artists have been documenting songs and adapting them for the younger generation. The digital age has provided opportunities for talented music aspirants to explore their skills by singing in their mother languages and playing their traditional instruments, preserving the local literature and tunes in the process.

Fazal Ameen Baig, an anthropologist from Hunza valley, who studies local languages says that four main languages are being spoken in the area. “Wakhi, Burushaski, Dumaki and Dawodi,” he lists them.

“Wakhi, spoken in Upper Hunza, belongs to the Old Eastern Iranian languages family,” says Baig. “Burushaski, spoken primarily in the Hunza, Nagar and Yasin valleys, is estimated to have some 90,000 speakers.”

“Burushaski is a linguistic isolate, meaning a language whose genetic relationship to other languages is not clear,” Baig observes, “… in a way, it is like Basque, a language spoken in the western Pyrenees of Spain and France.”

According to Baig, Dardic languages, spoken in northern Pakistan, Jammu and Kashmir and eastern Afghanistan, are believed to have their roots in Shina, an Indo-Aryan language still spoken in parts of Gilgit Baltistan.

Commenting on the local music scene, Baig says that the efforts of local artists in preserving culture and traditions cannot be overstated. “Local artists have been using traditional instruments but coming up with compositions of their own. This overlay has made their songs appealing to the youth,” he notes.

Local artists seem to agree with Baig. Faheem-ud Din Hunzai, a young folk artist says that the new generation is no longer interested in the old genres. “That’s why we often fuse old poetry with modern compositions,” he says.

The musical journey does not come without its challenges, the young artist says. “My family was not okay with me singing. I started out as a drummer but then I sang folk songs and received an overwhelming response from the audience,” says Faheem.

He says he continued to sing while playing different traditional instruments and sang a number of folk songs. “Singing the words of old poets gives me peace,” he says.

Faheem and his peers have been discovering works of famous poets like Babar Khan, Aqeel Khan, Malangi, Jehan Ali Ustad and others in the Shina language. They have also been curating works of Burushaski poets like Sherbaz Ustad, Abbas Hassan Abadi and others who have written romantic, naturist and revolutionary poems. In addition to that, they recompose old folk songs and stream them on their YouTube channel. “Every musician has a duty to preserve and impart the old lyrics of our languages to new generations because it is part of our culture. It keeps our native languages alive,” says Faheem.

Abdul Azeem Hunzai, another folk artist from Ali Abad, Hunza, in Gilgit Baltistan, has been working for the revival of indigenous folk music in Burushaski and Shina. He is not only a vocalist but also a poet. He writes about injustice, social issues, rights, promotion of local languages, culture and traditions.

There have been some heartening attempts to revive indigenous folk music. Emerging folk artists have been documenting songs and adapting them for the youth.

“The whisper of roots,” a song co-written by Azeem Hunzai and Zahid Barcha in Burushaski explores the themes of tradition and love, devotion towards their motherland and present-day depravity. Here are some of its verses:

“In the shadows of

forgotten joy and bliss,

My heart wanders afar,

amiss

I perch upon the mountain’s crest, where’s my lost

friend, unknown quest

In ages past, a tale

was told,

of a castle once yours

with stories untold

But faith unkind upon you

casts its shadow

Where lies that Baltit castle and where my

heart’s hollow

Craving for Hunza, people

desire bloom,

In the city’s filth, they’re

trapped, consumed,

Longing for woollen

chugha, they inquire,

Where’s our beloved home,

its charm and fire

as they blend apricot

seeds, walnuts they chew,

dried fruits harmonise

flavours anew

Here, our hearts crave for

this sight,

A wine barrel near the

winter firelight

From the mountaintop,

Zahid’s voice resounds,

His throat bruised for

mankind’s wounds.”

Azeem Hunzai’s first song, which he sang in 2011, was romantic poetry by the famous Burushaski language progressive poet Rahimullah Rahim. Since then, he continued to sing folk songs and recorded 30 complete songs in a proper studio in Burushaski, Shina and Urdu.

Azeem Hunzai says the poetry of folk songs from mountainous regions is unique in that the poets focus on their environment and feelings.

Niaz Hunzai is another famous instrumentalist from Altit Hunza who teaches musical instruments at international and national levels. He is currently based in Lahore. He says he has been imparting the skills to the various communities in Pakistan.

“My grandfather invented the Ghjeni, a musical instrument that was my inspiration. Today I have hundreds of students. I formally teach music in Pakistan’s top universities,” Niaz Hunzai says.

“The basic thing in the GB folk music are mountain rhymes locally called Loloo. The audience feels the grief, sorrow and pain of the words sung with traditional music instruments. Loloo was a famous activity across Gilgit Baltistan in the past. Men used to sing folk songs among their friends and play various instruments,” he says.

Many regional languages are spoken in Gilgit-Baltistan. These include Burushaski, Shina, Wakhi, Balti, Khowar, Domaki and Gujari. However, these have never been documented or taught. The GB musicians worry that their mother languages may fade away in a few years if not preserved and promoted.

The writer is a freelance journalist and writes about North Pakistan. He can be reached @umar_shangla