ENG: “Traveling to the recognized musical bamboo sourcing regions is about much more than bamboo alone. We met friendly people, made new friends, visited extraordinary landscapes, stayed in beautiful communities, and learned about local economies. Here are some photo impressions!” ESP: Viajar a las regiones reconocidas de recolección de bambues musicales implic mucho más que […]
Tag: Chhalla
Short Film Shooting Session in the Zongo Valley
ENG: Today, I am sharing some impressions from last week’s shooting session in the Zongo Valley. We took amazing shots in Milluni, Huayna Potosí, Laguna Viscachani, and, of course, in the Yungas cloud forest environment of the Zongo Valley. It was just amazing, and every time it is an impressive experience to travel into the […]
Collecting Chhalla Bamboos in the Alto Beni Region
ENG: Alto Beni is not only one of the municipalities of Caranavi province (La Paz department) but also defines a natural geographic area (broader ecoregion), partially integrated within the departments of La Paz, Cochabamba, and Beni. It is situated in the syncline valley of the mid-course of the Beni River (called Alto Beni or Mosetén […]
SEM Newsletter Photo Story
ENG: I extend my heartfelt thanks to Sonia Gaind-Krishnan, the newsletter editor of the Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM), for publishing my photo story, “The Musical Veins of the Zongo Valley and the Sound Voice of its Panpipe Bamboo.” I am delighted to share more images to complement this SEM-NL Photo Story here. ESP: Extiendo mi […]
A Trip to the Zongo Valley
ENG: Before returning to Germany for the next six months, I visited my friend Don Alejandro, a chhalla bamboo collector (chhallero) in Chirimoyani in the famous Zongo valley. This valley close to the city of La Paz is known for its unique chhalla panpipe bamboo. Aymara musicians say about this panpipe bamboo that it has […]
Donation of Musical Bamboos to National Herbarium of La Paz
ENG: The National Herbarium of La Paz has recently created a new collection of plant species with cultural and social use. I am happy to contribute to this new collection with a donation of a set of musical bamboo tubes, which I collected during my fieldwork among highland flute makers and lowland bamboo collectors. I […]
New Botanical Description of Andean Woody Bamboo
ENG: Last year a new paper about an Andean woody bamboo was published by Bolivian and Brazilian botanists Iván Jiménez-Pérez and Ronaldo Vinícius-Silva. This is the botanical description of Merostachys nigricans, one of the Andean woody species of the Merostachys genus that is used in panpipe making, known under the Aymara name of kjirki chhalla (the other […]
The Musical Bamboos of the Bolivian Andes 