Terma Heritage Foundation

The Dranyen

A living archive of the Tibetan lute — its history, its making, its notation and its music — alongside tools to tune, write and play. Built for everyone, from first-time learners to scholars.

Dranyen for iPhone — coming soon

Tools

Tune your dranyen

A listening tuner that guides you course by course — La · Re · So — and a reference-tone player.

Open tuner

Write notation

Compose in numbered notation, hear it played, see it as sheet music, and export or share.

Open writer

Knowledge base

History & origins

A thousand years, from Songtsen Gampo to exile.

The instrument

Anatomy, materials, and the La-Re-So tuning.

Notation

From animal-sound names to today’s numbers.

Music & genres

Gharlu, Nangma-Toeshey, folk and street songs.

References & bibliography →

The dranyen has been the foundation of Tibetan music for a thousand years. This project gathers its knowledge and gives it modern tools, so the tradition stays alive, accurate, and freely available to all.

About the project & Foundation →