Are these Romanians?

What is the instrument called that the elder is playing on? How come the violin plays such an important role in Romanian musical culture? Is this a gypsy influence or is the other way around?

Yes, the dancers appear to be Rumanian (dancing the 'Hora'), while the old musician looks to me a Gypsy.
I don't know the English term of the musical instrument he plays (if any), but in Rumanian it's called 'tambal' (tzambal).
Here is how the instrument is officially described:
"A large dulcimer, i.e. a percussion instrument with strings that are hit with two sticks, often used in Gypsy orchestras (it has nothing to do with 'cymbals', i.e. the percussion instrument consisting of two metal plates, as it is often mistakenly translated)."
As for the influence of the violin, since Gypsies play it all over the world (not only Rumanian Gypsies), often on a sophisticated level, I don't believe it is a Rumanian influence upon them.

Gen. Dénes

This post has been edited by Dénes on March 16, 2006 02:39 pm

I found a picture whit the explication: A romanian women giving water to a soviet solider.
Clearly a proaganda pic, i did not had any ideea where to put it.

Source: www.4chan.org at wepons section

This post has been edited by cipiamon on April 05, 2006 01:51 pm

You can open another topic "details on ppsh".. or another one - "how big was the russian soldier, and how small were the romanian old ladyes"..

Iama

An inappropriate joke by D13-th_Mytzu was deleted.

According to my PPSh, with the test that I made on myself, the Soviet soldier must be between 1,65-1,70m. So this is not a big guy, he is about my size....