Namgar (Mongolia)
Namgar are a four-piece music group that perform traditional Buryat and Mongolian music. Their leader, Namgar Lhasaranova, comes from the east borderland where Russia, Mongolia, and China meet.
Namgar Ayushievna Lhasaranova grew up in a Buryat family in the tiny village of Kunkur, near the border crossing of Russia, Mongolia, and China. She comes from a long family line of shamans that preserved the Buryat musical tradition. She started performing traditional Buryat music on stage in the mid-1980s. Since then, Lhasaranova has performed solo in France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Norway, and the US, singing traditional songs and playing the zither yataga.
Lhasaranova sings long songs and yokhor dance tunes, Üliger legends of mighty champions, precise arrows, and swift horses, just as they were sung ages ago, with arrangements that make her music appealing to world music fans. The Hori Buryat tribes to which Lhasaranova belongs historically were supporters of Genghis Khan and important commanders of the Mongol Invasion. Their songs and dances date back to the glorious times of the Mongolian Empire, preserving many genres and songs that became extinct in the other parts of Mongolia.