A nine-member delegation from the Chinese military museum, headed by Col She Zhihong, visited Lok Virsa (National Institute of Folk and Traditional Heritage), Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, here at Shakarparain on Wednesday. The delegates were warmly received by senior officials of Lok Virsa. Executive Director Khalid Javaid briefed them on the salient features of Pakistani folk culture, traditions, art and crafts with special emphasis on the mandate of Lok Virsa as a specialised cultural body. He also briefed them about the ongoing Pak-Norway joint institutional cooperation that Lok Virsa is successfully implementing as a lead partner from Pakistan in collaboration with Norwegian cultural institutions, in particular, Norsk Folk Museum (Norwegian folk art museum), Oslo. Khalid Javaid suggested a similar interactive programme with the Chinese ethnological, folk art and craft museums, adding it would greatly enhance the existing cultural relations and people-to-people contact between the time-tested friendly countries of Pakistan and China.
Later, the delegates were taken around various three-dimensional creative displays at the Pakistan National Museum of Ethnology, popularly known as Heritage Museum, depicting the living cultural traditions and lifestyles of the people of Pakistan. The delegates were very much impressed to see the link passage with People’s Republic of China created at the museum that beautifully displays the artifacts and rare craft items contributed by the Chinese government as a token of gift to the people of Pakistan from the people of China. They also took keen interest in the displays on embroidery, silk thread, musical heritage, Sufis and shrines and ethnic tribes.
