Apart from one photograph in Buchner, all the research discovered on Tibetan dulcimers has been done by Geoffrey Samuel (81).
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The instruments are Chinese, and the Chinese name is often used, although the local names are to be heard also (gyü-mang etc. - see Chapter 2).
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The ensemble consists of two lutes, two fiddles, dulcimer, and sometimes flute.
The repertoire includes national songs (the players are Tibetans in exile), a prayer for the long life of the Dalai Lama, and songs from Western Tibet, more modern, and consisting of a slow and a fast part.
See also discography, and Geoffrey Samuel's article, currently in preparation for Ethnomusicology, Sep. 1976.
Note, in Buchner's illustration, the wavy soundboard, otherwise unknown apart from Northern Ireland.
