Tajik Dutor
The Tajik dutor is a two-stringed lute played among Tajiks in Central and Southwestern Tajikistan. It is used by professional bards (hafiz) as an accompaniment to their semi-classical songs, as well as by singers of falak, popular lamenting songs.
The Tajik dutor is also known as a “dutorche” or “dutori mayda”, both of which mean a “small dutar”. Indeed, it is smaller than all other types of dutars in the region, such as the Uzbek, Turkmen and Uyghur dutars. It differs from most of them, however, by being fretless. This simple design had led to speculations that it is a precursor to the other dutars.
The Tajik dutor is carved out of a single block of wood, usually apricot, mulberry or walnut. Its strings are formerly made of gut but nowadays replaced by nylon.
