The Story of the Dramnyen

Six and half strings

- the story of how one of the strings of the Bhutanese lute was shortened.

The Bhutanese Drangyen, or lute, has the unique distinction of having six and a half strings referred to as drays, which produce seven different scales.

Ap Dawpey (85), master traditional musician shared an oral story of how one of the strings was lowered.

Long ago, they lived seven dakinis. Every spring they would descend down to earth to bathe in a pool of water in the middle of a lush meadow bordered by snow peaked mountains.

A young shepherd, an orphan who lived nearby, used this idyllic meadow as pasture for his sheep. 

One day, after taking a nap under a willow tree, the shepherd awakes only to find a find a lute on the ground next to him.

Rubbing his eyes in disbelief he plucks a string and a beautiful melody flows forth. He plucks more strings and is enthralled by the music.

Meanwhile, the seven beautiful angels were enjoying their bath and playing happily in the water nearby.

The shepherd is excited with his new toy and immediately rounds up the sheep to take them home to the barn. On the way he passes by the pool and notices the seven beautiful women bathing in the pool, but he shows no interest in them.

After putting the sheep in the barn, the shepherd goes up to the attic of the barn and hides his new possession. Every night he would climb up to the attic to play the lute at the stroke of midnight.

The youngest angel decided to allow the orphan boy to keep the lute on the condition that he was not to play the instrument or show it to other people under any circumstance.

She told him that every night he was to play for her. He could beckon her by strumming the lute, that would be her a cue to appear to him in the attic of the barn.

So every night the young angel would sneak down and spend the entire night listening to the young boy play the lute. At the sound of the rooster crowing, the angel would disappear.

As the story goes, the blessings of the lute made the poor boy rich. He became as rich as the king in his valley and he kept the contract with the young dakini.

In the same valley but on the other side of the river, lived a powerful king who fathered the most beautiful women in the kingdom. His youngest daughter was said to be his favorite. Every night the sound of the lute flowed into the air and the wind carried the melodies gently to the distance kingdom. Soon the music enveloped the princess and she became obsessed with it and would spend the whole night listening to the music.

On her 21^st birthday, the king wanted the musician to play for his daughter and sent his men across the river to search for the musician, which they did.

Soon the king had a bridge built over the river, and the princesses started visiting the musician. She called him uncle.

The princesses also arranged an archery match for the man who loved to sing and dance. The princesses were so curious that they inspected his house, opening and closing the door several times, and noticed a lute behind the door.

The princess was delighted and in her joyful mood, she strummed the strings of the lute and the dakini appeared. In dismay, she realized the presence of other people the dakini immediately, cut all seven of the strings of the lute and then she disappeared.

That night, at the stroke of midnight the shepherd picked up his lute to play and noticed that the strings had been cut and he became anxious.

After that evening he started to become poor and in a short time he had nothing. He realized what had happened, so the next spring he hid in the meadow and waited for the dakinis to take their bath.

When they appeared, the young man confronted the youngest angel and pleaded, “please fix the strings,” to which she replied no.

The young boy was adamant and continued to please with the dakini who reasoned, “If I had not cut the strings that day, I would have died from all of the impurity caused by betrayal.”

He persisted, and so finally the dakini, consented to string the lute again but this time she lowered one; to remind him of the breach of trust.

The story of the Crocodile

All the old lutes in the country have a crocodile carved as the head. Ap Dawpey explained the reason why traditional lutes have this animal.

In the old days all lute players went insane. No one knew why, so they consulted Sha Gyalp (King of the East).  

According to Bhutanese myths each direction has a king whose responsibility is to protect the kingdom.

For example, the king of the east is known as the Sha Gyalp’s and it is said that his voice is so powerful that every time he speaks it destroys nything that came its way. As a result, he had to remain silent till he discovered that he could convey his information through the lute.

So the Sha Gyalp uses the Dramnyen to relay his messages, even though he is neither a great musician nor a singer.

Through the lute, the Sha Gyalp explained that the melody of the lute had attracted demons.

Like the people, the demons also became enthralled by the music and they would come up as close as the knees of the lute players.

Since they were invisible, the lute players never noticed but because of the negative energy they brought anyone in their proximity would go insane.

 As a remedial measure, the Sha Gyalp instructed that all lute were to have the head of the crocodile with horns and beaks as a figurehead to ward off these negative forces.

This way, even if the melody of the lute attracted demons, the sight of the crocodile would keep them at a safe distance.

Today we find many of the modern lutes carved with heads of different animals. Bhutan’s master traditional musician Ap Dawpey is concerned and remarked, “The carpenters who make these modern lute’s must be educated on the history of the lute.”

Contributed by Tshering Tashi