सिफुं गोलाव (Siphung Gwlao)

Siphung Gwlao is a musical instrument which is tubular in shape that is played by blowing a specially shaped opening. Siphung Gwlao is made with the branch of thai bamboo or औवा गुबै , both ends of  the bamboo has nodes which is closed, the first hole where the air is blown is called “बार”or “the air” or also called  “जिउ लामा'' or “the Soul way.” The distances after the first hole should be 1 inch. The Siphung has 5 holes, it is one of the note producing instruments of the Bodo community. The Siphung Gwlao is not the same in length. It has 7 scales, c, d e , f g a, b for each scale there are different length of Siphung, the 5 holes that has its own unique note which are categorised as, 1st hole  represents Sa, 2nd hole represents Dha, 3rd hole represents Pa. the 4th hole represent  Ma and then the 5th one produce Re. These 5  notes are the Bodo’s sole note, with the 5 notes the Bodo tune is recognised, the kherai song is made with those 5 notes, this sole notes produce a peculiar tune which is extraordinary, there are 3 octaves, low, middle and high octave, low - dha pa ma, middle – sa re ma pa dha, high – sa re ma pa dha , and it is the typical identity of the Bodo tune. The G,F,D  scale Siphung Gwlao are basically played  during the  kherai. The kherai requires a high note, which is considered as melodious and sweet.  The note which is played during kherai is a meditation tune, mainly to offer prayers and devotion to God. The Siphung Gwlao is a mandatory note producing instrument of not only kherai but in all Bodo melody tunes like Bagurumba, prayers songs, Bwisagu songs , folk songs etc.