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Badakhshan Discusses Music and Dance in the Pamir Mountains

The Badakhshan Ensemble takes its name from the mountainous region — poetically known in Persian as Bam-i Dunya, the "Roof of the World" — that comprises the sparsely populated eastern half of Tajikistan and northeast Afghanistan. There, nestled in a series of riverine valleys that descend from the Pamir Mountains to the Panj River, the boundary line between Tajikistan and Afghanistan, are scores of small settlements whose inhabitants have cultivated a vibrant tradition of devotional song, dance, and contemplative instrumental music. Produced in collaboration with the Aga Khan Music Initiative, a program of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture.