Badma Khanda Ensemble

Traditional music is an umbrella term used in the mid–20th century by folklorists and ethnomusicologists to denote community-rooted, orally transmitted repertoires tied to social ritual, work, celebration, and storytelling. Unlike commercial pop or art-music traditions, traditional music is typically learned by ear, varies regionally, and evolves slowly through communal participation. It often features modal melodies, cyclic rhythms, heterophony or unison singing, and indigenous instruments whose timbres are integral to local identity. Lyrics tend to preserve language, history, and collective memory. While the musical practices themselves can be ancient, the phrase “traditional music” emerged to replace earlier, narrower or colonial framings like “folk” or “ethnic” music, foregrounding continuity, locality, and living practice rather than exoticism.

Buryat folk music is the traditional music of the Buryat people of Siberia, centered in the Republic of Buryatia (Russia) and bordering Mongolic regions. It blends ancient shamanic ritual song, epic recitation (uliger), Buddhist devotional elements, and steppe song traditions shared with Mongolian cultures. Characteristic features include pentatonic melodies; long, melismatic vocal lines reminiscent of Mongolian “long song” practice; occasional overtone/throat-singing techniques; and the use of instruments such as the morin khuur (horse-head fiddle), khuuchir (spike fiddle), limbe (end-blown flute), jaw harp (khomus), frame drums, and various rattles used in ritual contexts. Social dance songs, notably for the yokhor circle dance, emphasize call-and-response and steady, communal rhythms. Themes frequently celebrate the steppe, horses, kinship, and spiritual life, with lyrics that may invoke nature spirits in older shamanic pieces or reflect Tibetan Buddhist poetics introduced from the 18th century onward.