Kheng Sonam Dorji

Kheng Sonam Dorji is a Bhutanese folk musician, singer and composer best known for playing the drangyen, the fretted Bhutanese lute, and for his work documenting traditional Bhutanese music. He founded the Music of Bhutan Research Centre, an organisation set up to record, archive and promote the music of Bhutan's regional, linguistic and ethnic communities.^[1]

He grew up in the farming village of Kaktong in lower Zhemgang, in south-central Bhutan, and learned his first songs from his mother, who died when he was young. He later moved to Thimphu and studied the drangyen under senior figures of the Bhutanese folk tradition. The prefix "Kheng" attached to his name refers to Khengpa, the minority language of his home region and his mother tongue.^[2]

International audiences came to know him through his contributions to the soundtrack of the film Travellers and Magicians (2004) and through his 2015 Smithsonian Folkways release, Music from the Mountains of Bhutan.^[2]

Early life and musical training

Sonam Dorji was raised in Kaktong, a village in the lower part of Zhemgang district. He learned songs from his mother during childhood, and her death while he was still young left him to carry that repertoire forward on his own.^[2] After moving to Thimphu he trained on the drangyen with elders of the Bhutanese folk tradition.^[1]

By the age of 13 he was broadcasting folk songs on national radio. His first national hit was "Maju Maju", and he went on to compose the first song in the Khengpa language to be broadcast nationally — an achievement that gave rise to the "Kheng" prefix by which he is widely known.^[2]

Music of Bhutan Research Centre

Sonam Dorji founded the Music of Bhutan Research Centre to teach, preserve and promote the traditional music he had spent his life learning. The centre's stated aim is to research, record and archive the many musical traditions of Bhutan's diverse regional, linguistic and ethnic groups, and to document living master musicians in performance and in interviews.^[1] Much of his reputation rests on this preservation work rather than on commercial performance alone.

Recordings and international work

Sonam Dorji produced and annotated Music from the Mountains of Bhutan, released by Smithsonian Folkways in 2015. On it he performs on the drangyen and sings both traditional Bhutanese songs and several of his own compositions. The recording grew out of his involvement with the 2008 Smithsonian Folklife Festival, where he performed as part of a programme on Bhutanese culture.^[2]

In 2025 he was named a fellow of the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, an international residency programme for artists, composers and writers. During the residency he composed melodies for songs on the theme of compassion and worked on theoretical frameworks for Bhutanese music, including efforts to amplify the Bhutanese lute for performance and preservation.^[3]

See also

• Kheng Language

References

1. History — Music of Bhutan Research Centre
2. Kheng Sonam Dorji — Smithsonian Folkways Recordings
3. Kheng Sonam Dorji — Civitella Ranieri Foundation