- Folk
Panduri — The Complete Guide to Georgia's Three-String Lute
Origins, anatomy, tuning, and the living tradition of Georgia's most ancient folk instrument — from Sumerian roots to today.
It is one of the oldest continuously-played instruments on Earth — and most of the world has never heard of it. The panduri (ფანდური) is the three-string fretted lute of Eastern Georgia, a 5,000-year-old descendant of the Sumerian pantur and the ancient Greek pandoura. This is the complete guide: its history, anatomy, tunings, regional variants, the heroic poetry it carries, the household rituals it marks, and its place in Georgian life from the 5th century to today.