Baul songs | Global Knowledge Systems

Overview

The Bauls are mystic minstrels living in rural Bangladesh and West Bengal, India. The Baul movement, at its peak in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, has now regained popularity among the rural population of Bangladesh. Their music and way of life have influenced a large segment of Bengali culture, and particularly the compositions of Nobel Prize laureate Rabindranath Tagore. Bauls live either near a village or travel from place to place and earn their living from singing to the accompaniment of the ektara, the lute dotara, a simple one-stringed instrument, and a drum called dubki. Bauls belong to an unorthodox devotional tradition, influenced by Hinduism, Buddhism, Bengali, Vasinavism and Sufi Islam, yet distinctly different from them. Bauls neither identify with any organized religion nor with the caste system, special deities, temples or sacred places. Their emphasis...

This record is imported from the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage public dataset as discovery metadata. ARED has not independently verified community authority, access protocols or local naming beyond the source record.

Community and Authority

Communities: Bangladesh
Languages: Not specified in UNESCO dataset
Cultural territories: Bangladesh
Countries: Bangladesh

How the System Works

Music, Performance and Oral Literature Language, Story and Memory Material Culture, Design and Technology Ceremony, Spirituality and Cosmology Ways of Knowing and Knowledge Transmission

Sources and Evidence

Imported from UNESCO DataHub dataset ich001. Field-level provenance is retained in the record metadata.

UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage ListsDataset

Open original source record

Field-Level Provenance

title: UNESCO DataHub field title_en
preferredTitle: UNESCO DataHub field title_fr
summary: UNESCO DataHub field description_en
type: UNESCO DataHub fields type_of_element_en and type_acronym
countries: UNESCO DataHub field countries, ISO codes resolved with ISO-3166 regional metadata
categories: ARED category inference from UNESCO concepts_primary_names, concepts_secondary_names and title
relationships: UNESCO concepts_primary_names, concepts_secondary_names, type fields and World Heritage links
sourceUrl: UNESCO DataHub field http_url_en
rights: UNESCO DataHub dataset metadata license and license_url

Original Source Metadata

uuid8c989deb-80d7-40b7-9db2-70d42cc38b4a

ich_public_ref107

inscription_year2008

title_enBaul songs

title_frLes chants des Baul

type_of_element_enRepresentative List

type_acronymRL

countriesBD

http_url_enhttps://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/00107

concepts_primary_namesInstrumental music, Vocal music

concepts_secondary_namesBard, Buddhism, Dance, Hinduism, Interfaith practices, Oral tradition, Percussion instruments, Philosophy, Plucked string instruments, Poetry, Religious education, Religious syncretism, Story telling, Sufism

main_image_urlhttps://ich.unesco.org/img/photo/thumb/00011-LRG.jpg

main_image_caption_enNot supplied

main_image_copyrightBangladesh National Commission for UNESCO

main_image_authorNot supplied

videoshttps://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/L-KUUDi11R0, https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/C2PgFpEQLEY

images[object Object], [object Object], [object Object]

Why This Record Is Credible

This public record is connected to 1 source and has been labelled Source Supported. ARED separates evidence sources from cultural authority so users can see both provenance and review limits.

Cultural Access

Use this as public discovery metadata only. It does not replace community authority or local access protocols.

Relationships

Instrumental music Vocal music Bard Buddhism Dance Hinduism Interfaith practices Oral tradition Percussion instruments Philosophy UNESCO representative list

Review and Corrections

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