The Frontier Post
http://frontierpost.com.pk/home.asp?id=24&date1=6/27/2002
Updated on 6/27/2002 2:13:03 PM


Grand Silk Road festival in Washington opens


F.P. Report
ISLAMABAD: Truck painters, performers of Sufi music and Buddhist figurative carved stones represent Pakistan at a grand cultural festival celebrating the living heritage of the ancient Silk Road, which got underway in Washington DC on Wednesday.

The festival, titled “The Silk Road: Connecting Cultures, Building Trust”, constitutes the 2002 Smithsonian Folk life Festival and is being organised in two five-day spells separated by a two-day interlude.

The festival celebrates the living traditional arts of peoples of Silk Road lands, says the Smithsonian.

The ancient Silk Road was a vast network of trade routes whose flow of ideas, culture, music, and art crossed the mountains and deserts of Central Asia to connect East Asia and the Mediterranean.

As the Silk Road is an enduring symbol of cultural discovery and exchange, the 2002 Smithsonian Folk life Festival presents artists of today whose stories and history link to the cultural mosaic of the Silk Road.

“In a world of increasing awareness and interdependence”, say the organisers, this festival “exhibits ways in which the many cultures of Eurasia were brought closer together through a creative commercial and cultural exchange that continues today in the lands of the Silk Road and beyond”.

The festival features some 350 traditional artists-musicians, dancers, craftsmen, storytellers, bards, cooks, martial artists and others-from 20 nations including the United States, Italy, Turkey, Syria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyztan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, China, Mongolia, South Korea and Japan.

All of the performances and demonstrations will be framed by scholarly presentations.

Representing Pakistan at the festival will be the Niazi Brothers through their Sufi music.

The schedule envisages Niazis performing every day, and twice a day on eight out of ten festival days.

Pakistani music will also be represented at Ralph Rinzler Memorial Concert in honour of Professor Henry Glassie, slated for June 30.

Other participants will come from Bangladesh, India and Turkey.

Buddhist figurative carved stones from Pakistan will constitute an ongoing display in an enclave reserved for such exhibits and aptly named Jewel Garden.

The Silk Road celebration has been organised by the Smithsonian Institution in partnership with The Silk Road Project, Inc., funded by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture as lead founder and key creative partner; Ford Motor Company and Siemens as global corporate partners and Sony Classical as Founding Supporter.

The Smithsonian Folklife Festival annually celebrates the cultural traditions of communities across the United States and around the world.

As an integral activity of the Smithsonian Institution, the Festival recognizes the immense breadth of community-based art, skill, knowledge, and wisdom, and the importance of presenting this diverse heritage to a broad public.