What is "zarsanga"

Zarsanga is a famous Pashto singer from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. She is widely known as The Queen Of Pashtun Folklore. She was born in 1946 at Zafar Mamakhel, a small village of Lakki Marwat. She belongs to a nomadic tribe called Kutanree (Kutan). They travel between Pashtun area from Punjab and Sindh. They don't settle permanently in one place. Their main profession is singing. Their main travelling route is through Bannu Road from Dera Ismail Khan and up to Kohat and Peshawar. Some of them travel as far as Afghanistan and stay there in Summer and return to Lakki Marwat during the winter.

In 1965, she married Malla Jan, a resident of Sarai Naurang, Lakki Marwat who was also a nomad. Many people believe she is married to popular folk singer Khan Tehsil, but she denies the rumours:

“Actually I sang with him on many occasions and most of our joint songs got immense popularity. He is not my husband he is just like my own brother”.

Zar Sanga has four daughters and two sons. Only Shahzada, her second son, has stepped into the world of music. At the start of her career, Zar Sanga would listen to the songs of Gulnar Begum, Kishwar Sultan, Bacha Zarin Jan, Khyal Muhammad, Ahmad Khan and Sabz Ali Ustad. “I liked all of them, but I have maintained my own traditional way of folk singing. The people would earnestly enjoy my songs on both sides of the Durand Line (Pakistan-Afghan border). “I got no education so I cannot sing from a written paper. Most often I sing the songs that are composed and created by the common folk. However my husband also wrote some of my popular songs”, she said. A French researcher, Miss Kia, who worked with Radio France, once said Zar Sanga’s voice was the only mountainous voice in the Pashto language. Miss Kia took Zar Sanga to France for a musical concert. In France, many people were fascinated by her sweet melodies. The Pashto singer described a concert in London: “I was singing a traditional folk song in Pashto about the mountains and gypsy life of the tribals and when I finished it, a British person came close to me and proudly remarked that he was also a gypsy.” The famous musical numbers of Zar Sanga, which she never misses at any musical event she plays are Da Bangriwal Pa Choli Ma Za (her first-ever song on radio), Zma Da Khro Jamo Yara, Rasha Mama Zwi De, Zma Da Ghrono Pana Yara, and Kht Me Zanzeri De. Zar Sanga has been to Germany, Belgium, Iraq, Dubai, America, France and UK and has enthralled thousands of Pakhtuns and local people with her voice.