The long-necked lute is one of the oldest instrument types in Asia, and the dranyen belongs to a family that stretches from the Caucasus to the Himalaya. Its Tibetan form, with the skin belly, the paired courses and the carved animal pegbox, is shown in murals and described in texts from at least the early modern period, and the instrument as it is played today was fixed in the musical life of Lhasa, in the nangma and toeshey ensembles, over the last few centuries.
In the old city the instrument was carried by amateur societies of musicians, by professional players, and by the itinerant singers who travelled with one on their back. In exile it was carried by the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts from 1959, and by the many players who taught it in the settlements and schools. In recent decades it has been taken up again by young musicians on both sides of the Himalaya, and it is now made in workshops in Dharamsala, Kathmandu and Lhasa.
This page will be extended with the instrument’s regional forms, its makers, and the players whose names the tradition keeps, once the Foundation’s teacher of the field has read it.