Kathmandu:

Let culture be the force of unity and not the force for dividing people.”

Thus spoke Dr Collin Kaiser, Country Director, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) while announcing the three-day festival ‘Music of the Gods: The intangible cultural heritage of Nepal’s musical castes’ on February 2.

The General Conference of UNESCO had adopted the Convention for the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage and this particular festival will showcase music by Gandarba, Badi and Damai communities of Nepal.

The whole festival was conceptualised by Shaun Nemorin who is a citizen of Mauritius. “Valorisation of the musical heritage amongst these people for all the Nepalis is the basic idea behind this event. All Nepalis should be proud of the musical heritage that exists and these communities should be seen as people who hold the intangible heritage of music in Nepal,” he said.

Starting from February 4, the festival will feature around 45 musicians and dancers from around 27 districts of Nepal. An exhibition of musical instruments used by these communities along with live demonstrations of how these instruments are made will also be held at the Music Museum of Nepal at Tripureshwore on all three days of the festival.

Ram Kandel from the Music Museum of Nepal said that tunes and raagas popular around 15,000 years ago will also be played during the exhibition.

Screening of two films -- I create again and On the move -- that talk about the mythical world of Kalpaari Damai culture and about the festivities at the temple of Ran Saini in Baitadi district respectively will also take place.

As a prelude Ram Krishna Gandarba from the Gandarba Culture and Arts Organisation played a tune on his sarangi while Suresh Gandarba elucidated on the everlasting bond between a Gandarba and sarangi.