Page 48 - Handbook of Tibetan Buddhist Symbols

Handbook of Tibetan Buddhis#12B 9/1/10 11:38 AM Page 30

30 T he Handbook of T ibet an B uddhist S ymbols

Four stringed Central Asian lute (left) in the form Four-stringed Mongolian horse-head fiddle (left)
of a rabab, with a garuda head crowning its peg- with its horse-hair bow. Two-stringed Chinese
box. Celestial lute of the gods (right), fashioned fiddle (right) with a carved dragon peg-box and
from precious woods, metals, and jewels. horse-hair bow.

lute (Ch. ch’in), with a pear-shaped body, a neck and head of a horse. On Chinese-style
tapering and unfretted fingerboard, and a thangkas the lute may take the form of the
tuning-head or ‘peg-box’ fashioned into the two-stringed Chinese fiddle, known in Chi-
shape of a mythological animal or bird. The nese as the erh-hu or hu-ch’in, and in Ti-
lute is usually depicted resting behind the betan as the ye. This instrument has a small
mirror at an inclined angle towards the left, and deep cylindrical or hexagonal sound
much as it would be held when being box, through the upper part of which runs
played. The lute’s upper edge may also ap- its thin round wooden neck, which is
pear straight, giving the instrument the ap- crowned above its peg-box with a carved
pearance of the Afghan rabab. A hanging
tassel, or a tied silk scarf, is also commonly
depicted on the upper part of the instru-
ment’s neck.
On Mongolian thangkas the lute may
take the form of the traditional horse-head
fiddle, known in Mongolian as the morin-
khur or khil-khur. This two-stringed bowed
instrument has a rectangular sound box, and Indian vina in the form of a vichitra vina, with
its peg-box is ornamented with the carved two lower resonating gourds.