You will uncover the rich and illuminating story of indigenous traditions of music and its related practices. Join the locals in celebrating the lives and cultures of these beautiful Eastern Himalayan villages from the Darjeeling Hills. The tour takes you away from the well-trodden tourist trails in the Darjeeling hills to relish local culture and music.
“Baithak in the Hills’’ is a specialty experience, organised and curated by Darjeeling Walks, that aims to construct and establish a dialogue between the oral traditions of the diverse music scenes of the Eastern Himalayas, the lesser Himalayas, and the institutionalised customs, practices, documentation of local music, and its history.
You get to venture into remote landscapes through music by attending lively musical performances of different ethnic traditions in a rustic setting in the Darjeeling Hills. Discover stories from the Silk Route laden with Nepali folk music. Savour each moment spent in these face-to-face dialogues with farmer musicians from the plains of Nepal. Join the musical sessions interspersed with conversations about Nepali folk music, the themes, their meaning and even their musical instruments.
The folk musicians of the Jhapa District in Nepal travel miles by pedalling, walking and public transport to commute to Darjeeling, the popular tourist hub. Otherwise, farmers from the fertile plains of Nepal, these generations of folk musicians perform well-loved Nepali songs with their ever-loved companion, i.e., the beautiful Nepali Sarangi.
Made of sturdy jackfruit wood, and polished with silk-smooth pine resin, the sarangi is an instrument features the symbols and impressions of ancient string instruments that have evolved over thousands of years across the Silk Route. Once the symbol of