For the related dance, see Dramyin Cham

Dramyin Cham

Dramyin Cham is a form of Cham dance - a masked and costumed dance performed in Tibetan Buddhism ceremonies in Bhutan, Sikkim, Himalayan West Bengal and Tibet . They are a focal point of the Bhutanese festivals of Tsechu...

, and for the related style of song see Dramyin Choeshay

The dramyin or dranyen is a traditional Himalayan

Himalayas

The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...

 folk music

Folk music

Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

 lute

Lute

Lute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes....

 with seven strings, used primarily as an accompaniment to singing in the Drukpa Buddhist culture and society in Bhutan

Bhutan

Bhutan , officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked state in South Asia, located at the eastern end of the Himalayas and bordered to the south, east and west by the Republic of India and to the north by the People's Republic of China...

, as well as in Tibet

Tibet

Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...

, Sikkim

Sikkim

Sikkim is a landlocked Indian state nestled in the Himalayan mountains...

 and Himalayan West Bengal

West Bengal

West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...

. It is often used in religious festivals of Vajrayana Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism

Tibetan Buddhism

Tibetan Buddhism is the body of Buddhist religious doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet and certain regions of the Himalayas, including northern Nepal, Bhutan, and India . It is the state religion of Bhutan...

 (cf. tsechu

Tsechu

Tsechu are annual religious Bhutanese festivals held in each district or dzongkhag of Bhutan on the tenth day of a month of the lunar Tibetan calendar. The month depends on the place, but usually is around the time of October. Tsechus are religious festivals of Drukpa Buddhism...

). The instrument is played by strumming, fingerpicking or (most commonly) plucking

Pizzicato

Pizzicato is a playing technique that involves plucking the strings of a string instrument. The exact technique varies somewhat depending on the type of stringed instrument....

. The dramyen, chiwang

Chiwang

The chiwang is a type of fiddle played in Bhutan. The chiwang, the lingm , and the dramyen comprise the basic instrumental inventory for traditional Bhutanese folk music....

 (fiddle

Fiddle

The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...

), and lingm

Lingm

The lingm is a type of flute indigenous to Bhutan. The lingm, the dramyen and the chiwang comprise the basic instrumental inventory for traditional Bhutanese folk music....

 (flute

Flute

The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...

) comprise the basic instrumental inventory for traditional Bhutanese folk music

Music of Bhutan

The music of Bhutan is an integral part of its culture and plays a leading role in transmitting social values. Traditional Bhutanese music includes a spectrum of subgenres, ranging from folk to religious song and music. Some genres of traditional Bhutanese music intertwine vocals, instrumentation,...

.

Structure

The dramyin is a long-necked

Neck (music)

The neck is the part of certain string instruments that projects from the main body and is the base of the fingerboard, where the fingers are placed to stop the strings at different pitches. Guitars, lutes, the violin family, and the mandolin family are examples of instruments which have necks.The...

, double-waist

Waist (disambiguation)

Waist is the narrow point of the body between the ribcage and hips. Other meanings derive from this by extension.*Waist is also a term for the bodice of a dress or for a blouse or woman's shirt....

ed and fret

Fret

A fret is a raised portion on the neck of a stringed instrument, that extends generally across the full width of the neck. On most modern western instruments, frets are metal strips inserted into the fingerboard...

less lute. It is usually hollowed out of a single piece of wood and can vary in size from 60 cm to 120 cm in length. Unlike a contemporary guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

, the dramyin does not have a round sound hole

Sound hole

A sound hole is an opening in the upper sound board of a stringed musical instrument.The sound holes can have different shapes: round in flat-top guitars, F-holes in instruments from the violin or viol families and in arched-top guitars, rosettes in lutes. Bowed Lyras have D-holes and Mandolins may...

 in the wooden sounding board

Sounding board

A sound board, or soundboard, is the surface of a string instrument that the strings vibrate against, usually via some sort of bridge. The resonant properties of the sound board and the interior of the instrument greatly increase loudness over the string alone.The sound board operates by the...

, but rather rosette

Rosette (design)

A rosette is a round, stylized flower design, used extensively in sculptural objects from antiquity. Appearing in Mesopotamia and used to decorate the funeral stele in Ancient Greece...

-shaped ones like a lute.

Of its seven strings, or thag, only six continue to the pegbox

Pegbox

A pegbox is the part of certain stringed musical instruments that houses the tuning pegs....

. Thus, six tuning peg

Tuning peg

A tuning peg is used to hold a string in the pegbox of a stringed instrument. It may be made of ebony, rosewood, boxwood or other material. Some tuning pegs are ornamented with shell, metal, or plastic inlays, beads or rings....

s are located in the pegbox, while one (typically corresponding to the string which is third from the left) is located in the neck itself. Strings were originally made from animal gut

Catgut

Catgut is a type of cord that is prepared from the natural fibre found in the walls of animal intestines. Usually sheep or goat intestines are used, but it is occasionally made from the intestines of cattle, hogs, horses, mules, or donkeys.-Etymology:...

, but are presently made from synthetic material like nylon

Nylon

Nylon is a generic designation for a family of synthetic polymers known generically as polyamides, first produced on February 28, 1935, by Wallace Carothers at DuPont's research facility at the DuPont Experimental Station...

 (similar to the progression in usage of guts in racquet

Racquet

A racquet or racket is a sports implement consisting of a handled frame with an open hoop across which a network of cord is stretched tightly. It is used for striking a ball in such games as squash, tennis, racquetball, and badminton...

 sports). The seven strings occur in two double course

Course (music)

A course is a pair or more of adjacent strings tuned to unison or an octave and usually played together as if a single string. It may also refer to a single string normally played on its own on an instrument with other multi-string courses, for example the bass string on a nine string baroque...

s, and one triple course. These become three double courses by the time they reach the pegbox.

Traditional dramyins are equipped with a single bridge

Bridge (instrument)

A bridge is a device for supporting the strings on a stringed instrument and transmitting the vibration of those strings to some other structural component of the instrument in order to transfer the sound to the surrounding air.- Explanation :...

. Resonance is achieved with a taught, thick animal skin. Certain older forms of the dramyin possessed sympathetic strings and under-strings to produce more resonance.

Some dramyins come with a plectrum

Plectrum

A plectrum is a small flat tool used to pluck or strum a stringed instrument. For hand-held instruments such as guitars and mandolins, the plectrum is often called a pick, and is a separate tool held in the player's hand...

 attached to the base for plucking. Plectrums were traditionally made of bone, but are now made of plastic or wood.

It is often ornately and colourfully painted or carved with religious symbols and motifs, and its pegbox is often impressively carved into a "C" shape resembling a chusing, a type of sea monster

Sea monster

Sea monsters are sea-dwelling mythical or legendary creatures, often believed to be of immense size.Marine monsters can take many forms, including sea dragons, sea serpents, or multi-armed beasts. They can be slimy or scaly and are often pictured threatening ships or spouting jets of water...

. Tassel

Tassel

A tassel is a finishing feature in fabric decoration. It is a universal ornament that is seen in varying versions in many cultures around the globe.-Etymology:...

s may be hung from the horns of the chusing to give the instrument a more frightening look.

Play

The triple (usually middle) course of the dramyin typically contains the half string on the left, which is usually tuned an octave above the middle unison strings. One of the other two courses are typically tuned an octave apart. The courses are normally plucked in unison during playing. Typically a single note is played at a time, making for melodic music and not harmony

Harmony

In music, harmony is the use of simultaneous pitches , or chords. The study of harmony involves chords and their construction and chord progressions and the principles of connection that govern them. Harmony is often said to refer to the "vertical" aspect of music, as distinguished from melodic...

. Dramyins may also be played to keep time, in a rhythm

Rhythm

Rhythm may be generally defined as a "movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions." This general meaning of regular recurrence or pattern in time may be applied to a wide variety of cyclical natural phenomena having a periodicity or...

ic fashion.

One standard tuning for the Dramyin is: g G c' c c f f.

The standard way of plucking a course is down and up. One of the two strings in the course is plucked in a downward motion, and the other in the upward motion. The downward motion is typically louder than the other.

Cultural significance

Dramyins are often used as accompaniment while narrating stories for providing ambience and keeping time, as shown in the Bhutanese film Travellers and Magicians

Travellers and Magicians

Travellers and Magicians is a 2003 Bhutanese Dzongkha language film written and directed by Khyentse Norbu, a reincarnate lama of Tibetan Buddhism, who is also known as Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche. The movie is the first feature film shot entirely in the kingdom of Bhutan...

Dramyins are notably used in the performance of Dramyin Cham

Dramyin Cham

Dramyin Cham is a form of Cham dance - a masked and costumed dance performed in Tibetan Buddhism ceremonies in Bhutan, Sikkim, Himalayan West Bengal and Tibet . They are a focal point of the Bhutanese festivals of Tsechu...

 - a cham dance

Cham Dance

The cham dance , also spelled tscham or chaam, is a lively masked and costumed dance associated with some sects of Buddhism, and is part of Buddhist festivals. The dance is accompanied by music played by monks using traditional Tibetan instruments...

 of subjugation performed by Drukpa monks during the singing of Dramyin Choeshay - a religious song. These are performed at religious festivals called tsechu

Tsechu

Tsechu are annual religious Bhutanese festivals held in each district or dzongkhag of Bhutan on the tenth day of a month of the lunar Tibetan calendar. The month depends on the place, but usually is around the time of October. Tsechus are religious festivals of Drukpa Buddhism...

s - banned in Tibet, but continuing unabated in Bhutan much as they have been for the past four centuries. The Dramyin music in the cham is notable as it is one of the very few instances of stringed instruments in monastic music in Bhutan, or for that matter in Tibetan Buddhism

Tibetan Buddhism

Tibetan Buddhism is the body of Buddhist religious doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet and certain regions of the Himalayas, including northern Nepal, Bhutan, and India . It is the state religion of Bhutan...

 in general. A Dramyin player leads the dance and keeps time for the dancers by plucking the instrument. In many chams, the place of the dramyin is taken by a percussion instrument, usually the cymbal

Cymbal

Cymbals are a common percussion instrument. Cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys; see cymbal making for a discussion of their manufacture. The greater majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs sound a...

s.

The Dramyin is generally regarded as a secular instrument, and the performance of a Dramyin Cham or Dramyin Choeshay are one of the few instances when Dramyin is allowed to be played inside a monastery

Monastery

Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...

 or a Dzong. However, dramyins are often depicted on thongdrel

Thongdrel

A Thongdrel is a large tapestry unveiled during tsechus in Bhutan. They are equivalent to Tibetan thangka paintings. Thongdrels typically depict a seated Guru Rinpoche surrounded by holy beings....

s (Tibetan: thankas) and given as offerings to deities. The guardian king of the Eastern direction - Sharchop

Sharchop

Sharchop is a collective term for the populations of mixed Southeast Asian and South Asian descent that live in the eastern districts of Bhutan.-Ethnicity:...

 Gyalpo (identified with Dhritarashtra

Dhritarashtra

In the Mahābhārata, Dhritarashtra was King of Hastinapur at the time of the Kurukshetra War, the epic's climactic event. He was born the son of Vichitravirya's first wife Ambika, and was fathered by Vyasa. He was blind from birth, and became father to a hundred children by his wife Gandhari...

 of Hindu mythology

Hindu mythology

Hindu religious literature is the large body of traditional narratives related to Hinduism, notably as contained in Sanskrit literature, such as the Sanskrit epics and the Puranas. As such, it is a subset of Nepali and Indian culture...

) is associated with a dramyin in religious iconography

Iconography

Iconography is the branch of art history which studies the identification, description, and the interpretation of the content of images. The word iconography literally means "image writing", and comes from the Greek "image" and "to write". A secondary meaning is the painting of icons in the...

.

The Dramyin's melodious sound is supposed to attract demons, and the role of the carved chusing on the pegbox acts to ward off demons. The Dramyin is associated with a guardian deity in the Dramyin Cham.

Popular culture and modern variants

Rigsar

Rigsar

Rigsar is a music genre, the dominant type of popular music of Bhutan. It was originally played on a dranyen , and dates back to the late 1960s. The first rigsar song, Zhendi Migo was a copy of the popular Bollywood filmi song "Sayonara" from the film Love in Tokyo...

 is a popular music

Music of Bhutan

The music of Bhutan is an integral part of its culture and plays a leading role in transmitting social values. Traditional Bhutanese music includes a spectrum of subgenres, ranging from folk to religious song and music. Some genres of traditional Bhutanese music intertwine vocals, instrumentation,...

 arising in Bhutan

Bhutan

Bhutan , officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked state in South Asia, located at the eastern end of the Himalayas and bordered to the south, east and west by the Republic of India and to the north by the People's Republic of China...

. Rigsar music often makes extensive use of the dramyin, although the traditional dramyin is typically modified into the rigsar dramyin by Bhutanese musician Sonam Dorji, for use in such popular music. The rigsar dramyin has 15 strings, two bridges and an extra set of tuning keys.