The Malang Folk Foundation will host the Osaka Kabir Yatra, an international edition of India's longest traveling folk music festival, the Rajasthan Kabir Yatra, across Osaka and Kyoto from 5th to 12th July 2025. Organized in partnership with the Indian Ocean World Studies (INDOWS) program at the University of Osaka, the Yatra aims to bring together musicians, seekers, and communities in a shared immersion into the spiritual songs of Bhakti and Sufi saints such as Kabir, Meera, Bulleh Shah, Shah Latif, and others. This musical journey will be led by celebrated Manganiyar vocalist Sakur Khan and his ensemble of folk musicians from western Rajasthan.
At Osaka Kabir Yatra, audiences will experience the emotive power of Rajasthani Sufi-folk music through public concerts, immersive student seminars, and interactive musical workshops. The ensemble, led by Nikita Tiwari (Project Director, Malang Folk Foundation), includes traditional instrumentalists Satar Khan (Dholak), Fuse Khan (Sarangi), and Lateeb Khan (Khartal), each bringing the soul and rhythm of the desert to Japanese audiences.
"This unique cultural odyssey brings the timeless wisdom of India's mystic saints—Kabir, Meera Bai, Bulleh Shah, and others—across the seas to Japan. Through soul-stirring Sufi music performances and reflective sessions, the tour carries the living oral traditions of India to new shores. It's about awakening deeper questions through music that has lived for centuries on the tongues of wandering saints," said Gopal Singh Chouhan, Founder of the Rajasthan Kabir Yatra and Malang Folk Foundation.
The Yatra will open with a research workshop and a public Sufi performance titled "A Sufi Musical Evening with Sakur Khan & Ensemble" on 5th July at Osaka University's Minoh Campus, with free entry for all attendees. This will be followed by a week-long series of seminars and performances exploring key themes in mystic poetry—love, surrender, resistance, and spiritual oneness. Sessions such as "Unapologetically Meera", "One Song, Many Voices", and "Spirit of Oneness in Sufism" will invite university students to engage deeply with these living traditions. All sessions will be facilitated by Malang Folk Foundations' Founder Gopal Singh Chouhan, who is also an independent scholar and archivist. Workshops on traditional Indian instruments and talks on the oral storytelling legacies of India's desert communities will offer hands-on experiences. These sessions will be exclusive to students.
The festival will conclude with an evening Satsang concert on 11th July at the Utano Youth Hostel in Kyoto, celebrating shared listening and collective reflection. Like the opening concert, this closing event will also be open to the public and free to attend. The performance is going to be held during the Minami Asia Kenkyu Shukai (South Asia Research Colloquium), to be held in Kyoto from 11 to 13 July 2025.
The collaboration between the Malang Folk Foundation and INDOWS emerges from a shared vision of cultural dialogue and spiritual inquiry. It seeks to build bridges across borders through the transformative power of oral traditions, music, and mystic poetry. Regarding this partnership, Gopal Singh Chouhan said, "We are deeply honoured to be hosted by the Indian Ocean World Studies program at the University of Osaka, whose vision of cross-cultural dialogue lies at the heart of this collaboration."
"The Osaka Kabir Yatra reflects the core vision of the Indian Ocean World Studies program at the University of Osaka—exploring the movement of people, faith, culture, and ideas across the Indian Ocean and its surrounding regions,"said Takashi Miyamoto, Associate Professor, Osaka University.
Supported by cultural archivists, faculty curators, and passionate students, the Osaka Kabir Yatra promises to be more than a musical event—it will be a spiritual exchange, a scholarly dialogue, and a celebration of shared humanity.
If you are in Japan between 5th and 12th July, don't miss this unique opportunity to witness the soulful magic of Rajasthan's folk mystics. Come be part of this journey of music, mysticism, and cultural resonance.
About Malang Folk Foundation: Based in Rajasthan, the Malang Folk Foundation works at the intersection of cultural heritage, livelihood and justice. It is a social enterprise with a mission to archive, support and sustain indigenous oral traditions and communities. The Foundation is the creative force behind the Rajasthan Kabir Yatra, India's longest traveling folk music festival. Malang is not just a spirit—it is a framework for justice, joy and sustainability through culture. Rooted in Rajasthan but working across India, Malang Folk Foundation is committed to putting "Folk First" at the heart of inclusive and sustainable development of indigenous communities. Malang works at the intersection of cultural heritage and livelihood, music and dignity, story and structure.
About Indian Ocean World Studies (INDOWS) project: This project focuses on the Indian Ocean as well as its adjoining land areas, and aims to elucidate the dynamism of how the mobility and the expansion of people, materials, information, money, culture and faith have contributed to the generation, development, accumulation or extinction of various relations within and outside of this world. Another objective is to open up new perspectives in regional studies, by establishing a regional setting as Indian Ocean Word as well as an analytical method which contributes to its study.
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