Buki

Buki is a kind of wind instrument that represents a long brass pipe. It originally comes from the north-west part of Georgia, the region of Svaneti. Inside the funnel-shaped part of pipe, up to first part it is inserted wooden stem, (trunk), and in the second part of pipe it is inserted copper trunk. Length of the instrument is 1270мм, diameter of a funnel 220мм, and diameter of a blowing place is 28мм.

It is thought to be battle instrument. Buki can be found in the poems – in everyday life of Georgia: ahead of the war and after the victory, during the struggle, coronation, feast, hunting and party. In the poem of great Georgian poet Shota Rustaveli "The Knight in the panther's skin" it is clearly shown that during crowning the king it was accepted "to beat" (to play) on Buki. For example, when Rostevan has appointed Tinatin sovereign, we read "Here Buki began to sound and cymbals embellished their sounding", or "they struck Buki and crowned the Queen". From set of historical sources it is possible to allocate Iranian "Visramiani", in which is described how sounds of Buki pealed out when Ramin was going in military campaign.