The dramyin or dranyen (Tibetan: སྒྲ་སྙན་, Wylie: sgra-snyan; Dzongkha: dramnyen; Chinese: 扎木聂; pinyin: zhamunie)[1] is a traditional Himalayan folk music lute with six strings, used primarily as an accompaniment to singing in the Drukpa Buddhist culture and society in Bhutan, as well as in Tibet, Ladakh, Sikkim and Himalayan West Bengal.

[2][3] The dramyen, chiwang (fiddle), and lingm (flute) comprise the basic instrumental inventory for traditional Bhutanese folk music.

Certain older forms of the dranyen possessed sympathetic strings and under-strings to produce more resonance.

Typically a single note is played at a time, making for melodic music and not harmony.

These are performed at religious festivals called tsechus – banned in Tibet, but continuing unabated in Bhutan much as they have been for the past four centuries.

A dramyin player leads the dance and keeps time for the dancers by plucking the instrument.

However, dranyens are often depicted on thongdrels (Tibetan: thankas) and given as offerings to deities.

The guardian king of the Eastern direction – Sharchop Gyalpo (identified with Dhritarashtra of Hindu mythology) is associated with a dranyen in religious iconography.

The rigsar dranyen has 15 strings, two bridges and an extra set of tuning keys.