A Guru of music and a Firm Teacher of School: Late Master Ghulam Baig of Hunza Valley, Northern Pakistan

By Fazal Amin Beg

The Eagles World Channel here proudly presents a musical piece of late Master Ghulam Baig that he had played on November 7, 2011 at his home when I was holding and recording a discussion with him on music development in the area by keeping in view his empirical perspectives and personal experiences. That discussion will be presented by Eagles World to the audience separately in the future.heere, I’m going to present a brief biography of late Master Ghulam Baig so to know a bit about him and his contributions to his community in professional and voluntary capacity.
Click on the following link of Eagles World and enjoy listening the sweet melody of the sitar.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYjAmmrkzbw

Late Ustad Ghulam Baig (famously known by the term as Master Ghulam Baig) belonged to Gulmit within Hunza valley, Gilgit-Baltistan Region, Northern Pakistan. According to his official documents, he was born in 1958 in his hometown at Gulmit, the headquarters of Gojal Sub-division. He got his early and matriculation education from the Government school of his village.
As the area was so backward with regard to education and human resources, matriculation was thought something of a highest level of education so to serve the schools and other institutions in the 1960s and 1970s. Even up to 1990s, intermediate level education in science was so rare in the context of Gojal. One could thus imagine how the matriculation level education of the students of the valley (also including late Ustad Ghulam Baig’s) would have been well received by the educational providers such as the Aga Khan Diamond Jubilee Education and the Government Education Departments so to serve the existing and coming generations.
After his matriculation, Master Ghulam Baig, like many others, was requested to serve the Aga Khan Diamond Jubilee School of Gulmit. He thus joined the school as a teacher in 1975 and served it for five years.with the course of time, along with his employment, he also did his intermediate level education as well as his professional level certification (named as “Certificate in teaching”).
In 1980, he joined the Government Boys High School for Gulmit and served the government schools for 37 years (April 2017).I must mention here with a pride that Master Ghulam Baig was thus also one of my school teachers. he was supposed to get his retirement when he’d become 60 in 2018 but it could not become possible due to his sudden health factor. It was so unfortunate that before a year or so, he tragically passed away on May 16, 2018 after the sudden death of his elder brother late Shahgul Aziz (85 years old), who was a well-known personality of Gilgit-Baltistan region in the field of polo and a community leader of Hunza.thus, the dreams of Master Ghulam Baig had after his retirement could not come true and left this mortal world.
Though, in the professional realm, late Master Ghulam Baig had his track record in teaching, he was also known in voluntary capacity for his contributions to many local organizations of his village and also of the region such as Wakhi tajik Cultural Association (WTCA) particularly, in music and sports. He was so elegant in playing multiple instruements (string and percussion), football, volleyball, tug-of-war, horse riding and polo in addition to sword dance.
Within the music world, Master Ghulam Baig was undoubtedly a guru of playing sitar who would grace the programs organized at various scales (local, regional and international). Although, today late Master Ghulam Baig is no more with us in this world, the Wakhi community of Hunza is so fortunate that he had already kindled the music to the youth particularly through the forum of Bulbulik Heritage Center of Gulmit, a project of Gulmit Educational and Social Welfare Society (GESWS).
Late Master Ghulam Baig has left behind her widow, the only son named Aslam Baig and five daughters. Aslam Baig is a young professional serving in the Government school of Gulmit, and fortunately, He is also on his late father’s footsteps and music tradition. He is highly competent in playing multiple musical instruments.
Brief Information:
The music piece presented by: Eagles World Channel
Music played by: Late Master Ghulam Baig of Gulmit
Audio recording by: Fazal Amin Beg (on November 07, 2011)
Photo courtesy: Aslam Baig son of Master Ghulam Baig
Technical support: Mazdak Jibran Beg