Lahore

History

The legend allots the foundation of the city to Loh, wire of Râma. One knows the history of the city precisely only starting from 1021, when the Ghaznévides conquered Panjâb. Lâhore became an important Islamic center then. After having sudden periods of disorders, with in particular, plunderings of the hordes of Gengis Khan and its destruction in 1398, Lâhore knew its apogee during the Empire moghol, founded by Bâbur in 1526. Giving up Fatehpur Sikri to control and extend its Western steps, Akbar made of Lâhore its capital, between 1584 and 1598. During this period ostentation, the city knew large embellishments.

With the decline of the Empire moghol, Lâhore lived a period of disorder again, marked by the many invasions of the Perses and the Afghan . In 1767, the city was directed by the Sikh S, which damaged it and plundered it largely. Then in 1849 Lahore was taken by the Britanniques.

It became finally Pakistani at the time of the partition of the India in 1947.

Geography

Lâhore is located on the Eastern bank of the Ravi river, in the plain of higher Indus, very close to the Indian border.

Famous monuments

Lâhore is famous for the gardens of Shalimar and Shahdara, among most beautiful of the world. The old city, heritage of the Empire moghol, contains in particular the mosques gilded and Badshahi, and the royal Fort.

Economy

Lâhore is served by the international airport Allama Iqbal, enabling him to be a large tourist pole. The city is the seat of an important textile industry, and also of industries of rubber, mechanics and iron and steel. Lastly, the city has important research centres, in particular in the nuclear sector.

Famous characters

In Lâhore were born:

Chetan Anand (1915 - 1997), realizer
Yash Chopra (1932), realizer, producer and scenario writer

Culture - Music

Introduction to the musical environment of Lahore

Of the partition between India and Pakistan, in 1947, the town of Lahore could be prided to be the musical center more bubbling of India of North (in its meaning pre-independence). If it knew to preserve this hegemony within current Pakistan, the city did not know to recover the losses due to the partition. Lahore produced the pioneers of the modern classical music Hindustani, revealed the great names of the popular musics (film musics), and profited within its enclosures from many institutions, personalities and sponsorships favorable to the musical radiation of the city.

One of the most interesting aspects of the organization of the musical activity with Lahore is that it was centered on the existence of “takiyahs” (hotels) and “baithaks” (taverns - literally places where to sit down) where the major musicians of Lahore occurred. In XIXième century, many establishments of the kind existed around Lahore and offered to the artists a regular public travellers, who resided in these places when of night, the doors of the old city were closed.

These establishments, in addition to the exposure to a public of amateurs offered to each artist recognized a place or to teach and transmit the musical tradition. Baithaks de Ustad Barkat Ali Khan, Ustad Sardar Khan and well of others were at that time of vibrating institutions.

These gathering places of artists were at the base of the system of gharana (in Urdu word designating the family, filiation - in the context of music, this term indicates a style of interpretation) and mode of teaching per oral voice, the ustad-shagird, which was characterized by a fusional academic relation between Master and raises. Admitted for its faculty to produce large artists, this paradigm was liberally financed by influential sikhs and Hindus who left the city after the partition.

The music was one of the modes of expression artisitic most affected by the division of under continent. Although Pakistan inherited the largest artists of the area, the disappearance in fact of the patronage of the easy middle-class Hindoue and Sikh dispossessed the musicians Lahoris, Moslems for the majority, of the prospect for living of their Article.

The radio was the only institution to which the musicians could turn. In 1947, Pakistan inherited two public radios, one in Peshawar and the other in Lahore which became the only means of promotion and of support for the musicians. Radio Lahore counted within his permanent personnel of the authors, intrusmentalists, and vocalists of reputation. At did the time of independence, the list of the artists contributing to the station include/understand certain legendary names as the tablaist (Ca exists this word? To check) Mian Qadir Bakhsh (professor of two of the largest tablaists of our time, Ustad Allah Rakha, father of Zakir Hussain known in occident with its Shakti formation, and Ustad Shaukat Hussain, professor of all the new generation of tablaists Pakistani). The staff of Radio operator Lahore also included/understood Bhai Lal, of the family rababi, Ustad Niaz Hussain Shami (type-setter), Shamshad Begum or Surinder Kaur. Radio Lahore also launched the career of two of the most popular singers for film of under continent, Noor Jehan and Mohammad Rafi.

After 1947, in addition to the loss of the financial patronage of the populations migrating towards India, the music scene lahorie was confronted with the Moslem, politically influential orthodoxy, which systematically discouraged the classical music, considered as sensual and incompatible with the design of a Moslem state.

Whereas the instrumentalists could gather in orchestras to survive, the vocalists for the majority did not find of way of reconversion. Ancestral styles the such dhurpad (musical genre, compositions considered as oldest of India of North), the thumri or the dhrupad gradually lost the ways which transmitted these traditions since generations. Many are the talents which were forced to direct itself towards other careers, often nonartistic to provide for their material needs.

In parallel, from the traditional instruments the such veena, the pakhavajs, the sarod or the sarangi, almost disappeared from the scene lahorie, and count nothing any more but some rare musicians able to make resound these instruments.

Archbishop's palace

Archdiocese of Lahore
Cathedral of Lahore

De Lahore with Montmartre

June 9th, 2007, the Gallery Cap inaugurated the first expostion of contemporary miniature of the French history, in the presence of Alexandre Gilbert, Mannan Ibrahim, Zeechan, Mudassar and Acif Ahmad, and H.E. Asma Anisated, ambassadress of Pakistan in France.

Bonds

the Alliance Fran1caise of Lahore
DANKA - the First Cultural Guide of Lahore

Twinnings

(April 9th)

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