Each of our communities and cultures has its own musical instruments, through which traditional music is played – folk music. In fact, Nepali daily life is our folk music, which has been awakening society for ages – dholak, madal, nagara, murli, bansuri, tabla, sahanai, narasinga, damaha, damru, chyabrung, sarangi, binayo, arbaaz, murchunga, dhyangro, jhyali, karnal, khainjadi, tamko, tungna, panchai, ektare, naykhin, mujura, khin, damfu, tungna, hudka...

A brief conversation between Jhuma Limbu and the Raithane Band, a folk music activist, musician and singer, and Kantipur's Deepak Sapkota on the importance of folk music and the situation in Nepal: On 21 Bhadra, there was a concert by 'Jhuma Limbu and the Raithane Band' at the LOD Club in Thamel, Kathmandu. Has folk music now become mainstream? Has the day come when people will come after paying for tickets to listen to folk music? What is Raithane? Such a concert was organized to let people know. When the concert was held at LOD, the largest club in Nepal, it attracted the attention of many. Why do people listen to only disco music in big bars and clubs? They also want our folk songs to be heard. Tickets are selling. We should be sensitive to this folk music, the idea that this is our music has started to grow among people. Just like people choose local food because it is our local music, people have started looking for local music. Whatever we have, that local property has not been coming out for a long time, maybe a decade at most. Maybe even after the people's movement of the 60s at most. I now feel that local music is in the mainstream. Now the day has come when I can eat rice by singing songs, it was not that time. Often when I talk to analysts, I hear them say, 'Our local music is in a crisis, facing crisis, it is difficult to come out'. That is because they do not know. There is no need to worry so much. We are working. The local music tour is taking place in other cities besides Kathmandu, what is your objective?  The local band has taken the objective of promoting cultural identity through musical tours. The band will perform music and dance at various cities and towns, focusing on local folk music - Hakpare, Palam, Chhyabrung, Ghatu, Sorathi, Deuda, Maruni and others. This journey connects the music of the village and the city. We also hope to bring culture and music to the new generation. The local tour will stand as a bridge to connect the music and culture of the villages and cities. 

How are local languages, songs and music connected to people's lives?

Just as the local language is determined by the topography of the place, music is also related to and influenced by the topography. The original place of the Limbus is sometimes very steep, a hill made of huge rocks, and sometimes it is flat. If we look at the notation of our Hakpare, the influence of those places can be found in its musical structure. It can be easily known from the structure of the Limbu language and what kind of place this caste lives.

Like in other languages, when calling someone from all four directions, from below, above

Earlier, there was a thing called folk songs or folk music, but if you say folk, it includes everything. Folk alone does not include everything, folk things include everything. However, there is no line separating folk and folk. We still have to find locality. There is music, but where is Nepali music? It is a state of disappointment when we search for it.

The language is ours, but music belongs to others. We have lost folk, we have lost our identity and our own things. My big dream is to see Nepali music standing on the world stage with its own original identity. Gradually, that day will come, we do not know our own culture. It means that people who know it have to come. 

Why did Nepali folk instruments not come into the mainstream?

There are instruments in Nepal as many as there are languages ​​and castes. However, those instruments were limited to ethnic and regional forms. There are many instruments, but they have not been recognized. Except for Newari, other instruments could not become commercial. On the contrary, the Magar community's music has spread throughout Nepal. If only a dozen of Nepali musicians were brought into the mainstream, how high would Nepali music have reached? 

How much has the meaning of traditional music expanded? What is the musical literacy of Nepalis? 

We did not have ‘music education’. Classical-folk-traditional music should have been taught in the course. But we never did that. But fortunately, jazz schools opened in our time, and it also became a place for musicians from all over the world to meet. Since there was no ‘music education’, we did not take our language, songs, and instruments seriously. Recently, after ‘ethnic music’ was started in Kathmandu University, some bands are being born due to its influence. We are just at the beginning. The country will have to wait 50/60 years since that campaign began to see its results. We are currently in the initial stage.