UMERKOT: The four-day Thar and Parkar Festival organised by the Sindh culture, tourism and antiquities department concluded on a high note at the historical Umerkot fort here on Saturday.

The first two days of the festival saw various programmes featuring cultural and sports events such as camel and horse races, malh, musical concerts and exhibition of handmade handicrafts and embroidery in Mithi on March 17 and in Nagarparkar on March 18. The last two days of the festival were held at the fort.

Sindh Minister for Culture, Tourism and Antiquities Syed Sardar Ali Shah said at the concluding ceremony that they had made ‘history’ by arranging the first ever Thar and Parkar Festival.

He rejected what he termed ‘media trial’ of his department and said it must stop now. “The critics have their own theories on the basis of which they criticise that ‘I have been launched by the PPP leadership to ‘buy’ the intelligentsia of Sindh’, but the fact is the intelligentsia can never be bought at any cost,” he said.

He said the government could not do anything without people’s support. “We will foil extremism through cultural festivities which give a message of peace and pluralism,” he said.

He announced establishing a motel in Umerkot and a Tharparkar museum at the fort and said the department had undertaken development and conservation works at almost all archaeological sites. The Kelankar Lake near Dhoro Naro was also being beautified and 10 huts were being built there, he said.

The minister’s speech was followed by a grand music programme in which local singers and those who had arrived from other areas including Mai Dhai, Ameer Faqeer, Humera Channa, Reshma Parveen, Rashid Hyderi and Dilbar Jalal Chandio enthralled the audience.

According to estimates thousands visited the festival during both days. Forty stalls were set up in the huge ground of the fort which sold traditional Thari clothes, Thari cuisine, rilli (quilt), mosaic, khes, and other traditional clothing.

Models of traditional Thari homes comprising a canopied straw-made hut called chaunro and a rectangle hut called landhi and other items of daily use were put on display for the urban visitors.

Thari artisans including cobblers, potters, blacksmiths and carpenters were also sitting along the model huts depicting typical Thari village life. Women took great interest in clothing and homeware.

A mushaira was held in the morning in which local poets beautifully expressed their feelings in rhyme. A sughar katchehri was held and presided over by Taj Mohammad Halepoto, who was also president of the sughars of the province.

A display of fireworks was held perhaps for the first time ever in the ancient fort on both days of the festival. The fort was beautifully decorated for the occasion and it gave a vibrant, lively look. The traditional Sindhi wrestling malh was also part of the festivities.

Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2017