The Giant Stringed Instruments of The Yi People

Woody just sent me a link to this amazing page showing the giant stringed instruments of The Yi People of China. There's another gallery here. I haven't had much luck finding out more about these amazing giant Pipas, not to mention the incredible triple-necked giant Clam guitar shown here.

The Yi live in China, Vietnam and Thailand, and every June in China, they hold their Torch festival, featuring  archery, giant bonfires, wrestling, bullfights and performances of their signature gigantic instruments. Sounds like a good time.

Here's a page about normal-sized Yi Instruments, but alas, no info on the big ones.

Thanks Woody!

Comments

[jima]

I can hardly wait to see what Vicki Bennett will do with these photos.

[dan b]

can we get some of these for the hoof & mouth to play?

[Emmett Allen]

Beautiful, but can not find the associated music files.

[bartleby]

I never had the chance to do a close check of the Pearl River Imports CD department which is now no more. I'd like to think that it consisted of music played on intruments like this and not Han boy band knock offs.