In its 16th edition, Banyan Tree’s Sufi music festival brings Siberian musicians to jam with Tibetan monks to rekindle their faith in the divine that starts today
As the north winds blow, people traditionally gather around fireplaces to rekindle their faith in the divine, enhance the strength of love and compassion, and charge themselves with positive, constructive energies to march on.
In its 16th edition, Banyan Tree’s Sufi music festival, Ruhaniyat, has brought together an intermingling of the musical and the metaphysical to our times and cities. There will be an added attraction of Siberian musicians who are bringing the traditional Shamanic music of their region to Mumbai, that they will jam with Tibetan monks making it an not-to-be missed affair.
Artyom Yakushenko and Lurii Matveev, the Siberian duo since their celebrated debut at a festival in Novosibirsk, Siberia haven’t looked back.
They use electric violin, electric guitar, and a five-string banjo to create a unique sound, eerie and haunting, yet captivatingly transcendental, and say these journeys have helped them pick up more of the traditional influences of the region.
Despite a contemporary upbringing, the duo have imbibed the musical traditions of Shamanism, which are popular across the cold desert swathes of Siberia and Turkic-speaking areas of Mongolia.
Known as Tengerism, which means reverence for sky spirits in Siberia and Mongolia, shamanism has always taken an animistic view of the world where everything is permeated by spirit force or, in simple terms, inhabited by spirits.
“These spirits had to be respected and appeased. Otherwise the land would become infertile and barren, the animals which gave food would disappear, and eventually the world would end. To achieve this essential and vital balance between humans, nature, and the spirit world, a magical specialist was required, and the shaman took that role,” explains cultural historian Mukul Joshi.
“Most shaman priests and priestesses use ritual drums and stamping of feet to drive away evil spirits. These wooden drums, decorated with feathers and magical symbols, represent spirit journeys to the Other world, or the shamanic cosmology. But both the music and the chanting/shouts might not seem musical in the conventional sense. They are more primal sounds and often onomatopoeic in feeling”.
Echoing him, Nandini Mahesh of Banyan Tree too says, “For centuries India has been blessed with a powerful presence of Sufi saints and mystics who have inspired people of all faiths alike. Ruhaniyat (of the realm of the soul), began in 2001 as an endeavour that criss-crosses histories to remind us of this blissful path of spirituality, of the fact that beyond man-made divides of class, caste, religion, race, language, all mysticism has the same goal, the direct experience of the divine.”
Most regulars to Ruhaniyat can look forward to the Louvat brothers (Steve Louvat, Michel Vrydag and Jeffery Cardey) with Mukhtiyar Ali, who specialises in singing the works of Bhakti poet-saints Meera and Kabir.
The Indian segment will, for the very first time, present Banaras ki Rishikayen - a path breaking all girl group that excels in chanting ancient vedic mantras, and each day will conclude with qawwali.
LINE UP
Saturday, 26th November 2016
Ancient Vedic Mantras for Peace & Harmony - Benaras ki Rishikayen
(a pathbreaking ‘all girl’ Group)
One Step at a time to the Divine – Sopanam - Kavalam Vinodh & B. Krishnadas
Through the eyes of Meera & Kabir - Mukhtiyar Ali & Group
Mystic Pathways - An Indo-Belgian Production - Louvat brothers
Mukhtiyar Ali & Group
Qawwali - Hifzur Rehman Hakimi & Group
Sunday, 27th November 2016
Immortal words of wisdom - Shabad - Ashupreet Kaur & Group
Sindhi Sairaiki, Unsung Mystics - Sawan Khan & Group
Mystic Pathways - Siberia to Turkey via Tibet - Tibetan Monks, Two Siberians,
Sawan Khan & Dervishes
Qawwali- Chand Nizami & Group
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