:: Legend about Changi
Old Svanetian Changi
The Changi is one of the Caucasus region’s oldest stringed instrument in Svanetia, and has been existed in Georgia since the 4th century. It was considered to be the instrument of “sorrow”.
According to the sayings, it was often played to comfort a person in his grief. There is a legend connected with Changi that tells us the story of an old man, whose son was died in a war and who found an expression of his grief in a sad melody of Changi. The man created the sounding similar to voices of nature, that were mostly like misery songs.
In some literature Changi is compared with man’s arm and strings with hair and the sad voice is associated with the grief of the man.
Changi is realy similar to bent arm. Changi in Svanetian language is also called “Shimekvshe” that means a broken arm.
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