Research Focus Group Talk: The Ritual Music Culture of Bangladesh

Saymon Zakaria will reflect on the rich array of musical forms and cultural performances that have developed around religious rituals in Bangladesh. He will explore the intersecting networks of religious sentiments evoked by Bangladeshi musical performers from diverse religious communities, including Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, and Christian performers.

Dr. Saymon Zakaria is Assistant Director of the Folklore Department in the Bangla Academy in Dhaka, Bangladesh. A scholar of Bangladeshi folklore, his publications include Pronomohi Bongomata: Indigenous Cultural Forms of Bangladesh (2011), an ethnographic study of the aesthetics and sociocultural formation of popular dramatic performances in Bangladesh. Most recently, he has brought to fruition the groundbreaking work of Carol Salomon following her untimely death in 2009 by serving as editor, along with UCSB doctoral student Keith Cantú, of City of Mirrors: Songs of Lalan Sai (2017), a compilation of songs by the Bengali Baul poet and mystical philosopher Lalan Sai.

Sponsored by the IHC’s South Asian Religions and Cultures RFG.