TXST faculty presents high altitude indigenous culture research in Nepal

Holly Wissler, Ph.D., music history and world music cultures assistant professor of instruction in the School of Music at Texas State University, recently presented research on high altitude indigenous cultures at the Glomus Camp in Nepal. Her research focuses on how an indigenous Andean community in Peru uses music expression to process loss and grief.

As a high-altitude trek leader, guest lecturer and resident from the early ’80s to 2016 in Peru and Nepal, Wissler has deep knowledge and experience with the communities that reside in the two countries’ mountain ranges. She continues to work in Peru during the summers.

“This was like a return to home,” Wissler said. “Thanks to funding from the College of Fine Arts and the Division of Research, I was able to present my research.”

During the 11-day camp in Nepal, she presented her findings from the indigenous Andean community of Q'eros about animistic beliefs and how their spiritual leaders interact with the Earth and mountain spirits regarding healing. Her full findings will be published in a chapter of the edited volume titled, “ReSounding Loss: Music, Grief and Culture,” later this year.

“The gem of my research is about the Quechua community of Q'eros in the High Andes of Peru and their connection with animal fertility rituals, mountain gods, and Mother Earth,” she said. “Throughout the year in particular seasons, these communities give offerings to the mountain gods and Mother Earth in exchange for the welfare and working capacity of their animals in addition to the welfare of their own lives.”

The other side to the fertility rituals is a time of remembering when an animal or a family member has died. The community often reflects on their ritual offerings and considers that perhaps they didn’t offer the right amount of an item or in the correct way that was required for reciprocity.

“What comes out of that is they sing about their losses and improvise their sadness in that same fertility song for that specific animal,” she said.

Wissler began connecting cultural dots when her adopted deaf son from Q'eros, Peru, Dante, who attended the camp with her, experienced a family loss when he was a baby. When his biological mother died, Wissler witnessed his father singing about the loss and discovered that this was the way most members of the community grieve their losses —through song.

“I thought, is this just an anomaly?” she said. “In my three years of living there, I sure enough discovered that this is the way they express grief. They send the song out on their breath, which they view as their life force. It’s communal.”

Wissler said that particular way of singing is deemed necessary so that the mountain gods will hear and receive the song and reciprocate with the welfare the communities need for a good life.

After presenting this research, Wissler exchanged ideas and continued her research on the similarities and differences about how the Himalayan communities use music and singing to heal while experiencing loss as compared to the Andes communities. She hopes to return to Nepal in the near future to continue this work.

As a result of the camp, Wissler made various new international musical connections that she will bring into the classroom, such as Tamer Al-Sahouri, master oud player and expert in Arabic music from Palestine, who is a guest presenter on Zoom in her World Music Cultures class.

Another part of her research track includes deaf rights and education issues in Peru through Dante’s life journey. She has been developing a documentary for eight years with TXST alum Pablo Mejia, ’17 advertising and mass communication major, called Dante’s Story: The Fight for Deaf Rights in Peru. She also produced the 2007 documentary Kusisqa Waqashayku (“From Grief and Joy We Sing”) about the annual cycle of musical rituals in Q’eros.

While the work is directly tied to Peru, the documentary can be viewed as universal to the deaf community and extend to issues about disabilities in general.

“When we were in Nepal, we visited the Nepal Federation for the Deaf in Kathmandu and met the president,” she said. “We also did a short hike in the mountains with one of only two licensed deaf trekking guides in the entire country. That person is now the chairman of the Annapurna Deaf Association in west Nepal.”

The two countries are similar in that there are minimal options for primary school education, little to no advanced education options, and no certified interpreter training programs outside of self-taught friends and family members. However, Wissler noticed more deaf people in the workforce in Nepal than in Peru.

Although there are only two licensed deaf trekking guides in Nepal, there are zero in Peru. Observing more deaf people in the workforce was surprising, because while Nepal is less economically developed than Peru, they are more advanced than Peru in this way.

“In these beginning stages of my involvement with the deaf community in Nepal, I hope to return and share my project to continue enhancing resources."

In addition to continuing her own research on grief-singing in high mountain communities, Wissler would like to return to Nepal to build on relations with the deaf community who share similar issues with the deaf in Peru.

Wissler hopes the upcoming documentary will be completed this year for a film festival circuit run before a digital release in the near future.