Monthly Feature 13: Some Nepali Folk Songs

On this first Monthly Feature (first post as well) of 2017, I’m going to share some of the songs I heard during my stay at Palpa.

The first song I share is a typical Folk song of the Mid- and Far-Western Region called Deuda. There are a lot of songs within the Deuda culture, Raijhuma is the most popular. I’m not going to tell why it is popular among the masses; just a reason why it got famous in our camp.

One of the students in the camp, Tej Bahadur Rokaya (Tej dai–because he is much senior by age) hailed from Karnali.

Tej dai sings on the last day of the camp

Within a few days we discovered that he can sing Raijhuma of his own using his quick wits.Soon the whole camp was singing and enjoying the song. Here’s a version of the song on YouTube.

The second song is related to the Rodi culture of Western Nepal with a modern touch. This song tells the features of Rodi popular among the indigenous communities like Gurung, Magar, etc. I heard this song for the first time through Anil Regmi. I found two versions of this song on YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zp8n38kx7Ow and https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EPzM92gZMO4

The other song that I remember is Jhamke Guleli. I had heard this song being sung by boys last year at Malekhu but I had not understood it then. This song is a simple one with deep sorrow expressed in beautiful words. Here’s a link to the song on YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8f0EL6u99o

The fourth song I am sharing is Kaanchhiko chhata dhalkai deu yeta by Tulsi Parajuli. This is a beautiful Folk song of love with its origin in the Eastern region. While listening to the Folk songs from the Western Region on a regular basis, my mind wanted to switch to the Eastern Region. That’s why I downloaded and listened to this song. The YouTube link: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ASIaCFl3NfA

That’s it for this month. May our lives be filled with music this year!