The House of Letters: Musical Apprenticeship among the Newar Farmers (Kathmandu Valley, Nepal)

This article explores the principles of musical discourse among the Jyapu farmers of the Kathmandu Valley as revealed through the teaching of the dhimay drum. During this purely ritual apprenticeship, it is through the transmission of a corpus of musical compositions, based on mimetic syllables that are perceived as an expression of the voice of Nasadyah, the local god of music and dance, that the discourse of authority of the masters is expressed. The instrumental pieces played during religious processions originate from these syllables, which imitate the sounds of the drum. In addition, dhimay drum apprenticeship is inextricably linked to that of acrobatics, which includes the virtuoso handling of a tall bamboo pole. I propose to discuss here the nature of this musical language in its traditional context, as well as its recent transformations in Newar society.1