Shafi Mohammad Faqir  
Manganhaar - Pakistan  
The traditional 'Manganhaar' singers from remote deserts of Thar and Cholistan, accompanied by their own set of musicians, present a talent like none other.

 

 

   

Shafi Mohammed Fakir of Umarkot, a veteran musicians of the tribe, composes music that takes one through the melodious tunes of the traditional but mostly unheard music from the desert. He performs mesmerizing the crowd with his enchanting melodies. He plays too the traditional instruments such as dholak, phartal and ‘Khamach’, a time-honoured indigenous musical instrument of the Manganhaar musicians, that is now rarely found in Sindh. Being a tribal group of musicians native to the Thar Desert the Manganhaar are Muslims having close affiliations with their pre-conversion Hindu background and Rajput patrons.

  Considering their singing a stigma, they refrained from performing. With the passage of time, they were on the verge of losing their heritage altogether, as the gurus were growing old and the new generation was not trained. At this point, the NGO decided to step in and work towards strengthening the learning tradition for music in the youth of the community. It is the revival of a lost heritage that is being looked at. They try to impress upon the people that folk music and mystic poetry impact people and communities from within the soul.