Kazakh Dombyra
The Kazakh dombyra is a two-stringed lute played among Kazakhs living in Kazakhstan, Mongolia and today’s Xinjiang in China. It is the most widespread Kazakh instrument and is representative of Kazakh culture and identity. Singers use it to accompany themselves in narrative and lyrical songs. It is also played extensively as a solo instrument.
The name “dombyra” is derived from “tanbur”, the name for a family of plucked lutes like the Uzbek tanbur and the Uyghur tembur , although the dombyra is played by strumming, much like the Uzbek, Turkmen and Uyghur dutars and the Kyrgyz Komuz. Very similar instruments can also be found among nations in southern Siberia within the Russian Federation, such as the Altais, the Bashkirs and the Kalmyks, attesting to their deep cultural links.
The dombyra is made out of woods such as birch, cedar, maple, pine and walnut, with the resonator made out of thin ribs of woods. The soundboard is made of spruce and is often decorated with ornament patterns representing the ram’s horn or other natural imagery that are significant for Kazakh traditional nomadic lifestyle. The strings and frets are formerly made of gut but nowadays replaced by nylon.
