MARAMUREŞ – THE CENTER OF THE WORLD
Kosei MIYA*
For me the region of Maramures, in the Carpathians, is the center of the world. Hazard brought me here now more than 30 years ago, and I did not stop visiting it. Here beats the heart of Romania, and its inhabitants are very proud of that. All the Romanians, without exception, recommend people to go to Maramureş. Meet real and warm people here .
Without aggressing nature, but living in harmony with it, they pray to Earth, and respect the Sun. And what is amazing is that, basically, they live in autarky.
The inhabitants of the regime say: "Maramures is the most beautiful region in Romania and we are warm like warm breads», what he wants to say that they have a big heart as big as their bread. These proud people that have their roots in God and nature have a profound spirituality. They raise animals and love the fir tree as God.
Believing that God is found in the symmetrical shape of the tree, out of this tree they make coffins, swings, houses, furniture, kitchenware and churches that have the shape of the tree. In the past, Maramures was a remote region of Europe. It stayed, protected by the modernism of the mountains surrounding it. That's why the folklore has preserved its purity and was passed from one century to another, from generation to generation.

Some villagers say: \"Even if the country disappears, our village will not disappear. On the other hand, if our village is gone, it is the end of the world.» Rooted in their land, the residents have their own philosophy and aesthetics; For them, the important is daily life, more than work, and life more important than daily life. Among these Romanian peasants of Latin origin, there are so many optimists who want to enjoy life. They love to help and also squabble a little bit. Although provincial, they are opened to the world. In other words, they are proud that they are from Maramureş, in Romania and in Europe, and especially to be real people. Through my photography, I want to discover healthy expressions and tender faces of some rare, deeply rooted people in their traditions, which manifests itself through a mutual trust and the warm welcome of foreigners. Sensitive in their hearts and in their attitude, I'm looking for true beauty, and thanks to their traditions, I continue my thoughts on the future of the Earth. Important values, hold Maramureş today forgotten by our contemporaries, and put us on guard against people that threatened civilization. I am convinced that the way of life of this region of Romania and the soul of its inhabitants retain a great significance to the gates of the 21st century.
*Kosei MIYA, "La Roumanie des quatre saisons ", Paris, 1997 - Words of a Japanese mood. 

ROMANIA'S TRADITIONAL HUMANISM OF TERRITORY
Denise BAZDEVANT*
In is in the ancestral villages that we should be able to penetrate to understand the folk art of Romania: in those hamlets hidden in the mountains along the valleys, among the hidden logs in the forests, in those fisherman settlements in the hills gathered too behind the curtain of trees ,built from clay and stone, clay or wood, covered with straw or cobs, with tile or thatch, built by the peasant with what nature gave him and in agreement with it. We find here the house of the peasant, with a low floor and a covered veranda with shingles supported by elegant columns, presenting a charming contrast of shadows and lights. It dominates in the middle of his land among the barn , with the press here, a plough there, a cart, a harness ... all that is needed to ensure food to the animals , corn and wood for the family during winter, the hemp and wool to weave for the woman, and for the man his working tools. It is not a shelter, but a life frame built for the living. Understanding what is going on in front of the fireplace from which his race emerged, that's genius, to furniture (-to populate you might say) their modest cell, along the long and dark winters, the man and woman at the same momentum, playing with all the richness of colors of the material that the Earth gave them , and gave free rein to the hands and imagination. Everywhere, one can see, that everything is reduced to the essential, to a central room where the family gathers around the fireplace to eat and to sleep-and two other small rooms. In one the woman's dowry is preserved, the bed cloths and embroidery, the looms, his personal things. The other is restricted to crockery and household objects. But this harsh interior-even frustrating-it is being animated over the years with all the luxury woven local carpets, thrown on the crates, arranged on benches, hanging on the walls, embroidered linens, towels, pillows, multi-colored, stacked up to the ceiling on hard beds boards, painted plates, glossy, hung on the interior walls, clay pots. Any object, no matter how humble it may be, becomes the object which you are pleased to see. His Romanian peasant house, illiterate and miserable for a long time, he knew to transform it in a royal place. And his exceptional grace, his instinct for variety, its inventiveness have touched at times such a perfection that has passed the limits of his village. Engraved ceramic pottery from Maramureş, Suceava, black embroidery in Banat, Oltenia carpets where, within the generally luminous borders , are thrown on the bordeaux or light green background, leaves or flowers heavily embellished, long carpets from Moldova covered with rhombuses, and I could never know how to quote here all creations which can be proud of the Romanian folk art. In their composition, but mainly through their colors derived mostly from plants or from the bark of the trees which allowed achieving shades of rare beauty, through the use of bright colors that touch at the same time vigor and sophistication.

The peasant sector must be reached in order to become truly aware of what Henri Laugier, one of the promoters of the UNESCO has called the universal value of the Romanian folk art. Here we find, in particular, that the peasant of the Carpathians raised wooden architecture at a degree of originality and elegance that enables it to rival with the most famous achievements of Central Europe and Scandinavia. The abundance of forests has put at his disposal an admirable material. But he demonstrated in a bright way that he understood his value. He was not satisfied to enrich his home only with the knife cutting technique through the ceiling beams, frames and the tops of the doors in the house or cellar, geometric designs whose origins go as far in the past that as if we're seeing the first signs that man has created. He also artistically decorated his entire village thanks to the forest: opening his garden toward the street via a true arc de triumph-a tremendous carved gate and protected by a roof under which the whole family gathers dressed in their Sunday clothes-he really transformed for himself the humble path in a Royal path. Finally, putting on the roof of his small churches, with a height in shingles ,that is built on one or even two floors that start an arrow towards the sky and dominates the surrounding homes, he printed modestly all the momentum of a religious faith that he believes in. The wooden church that I found another time in Gorj county, the land of Brâncuşi,in Banat, in Biker, appears today, especially in the North of the Carpathians, Moldavia and Bucovina. But the lovely churches from Maramureş, of which some-especially that of Ieud Cuhea and Călineşti Surdesti in Plopiş come from the 14th century-,in the their freshness and their severity,are the most poignant testimonies that a traveler may encounter in Romania the ancestral people, finding and replacing in the bosom of nature, in close connection with it, enroll their life in a Christian setting.
Bibliography - Denise Bazdevant - «Traditional» Romania

GUIDE OF ROMANIA
Bernard HOULIAT*
Sensuous and cheerfully human, Romania is beautiful in its complexity. From the Carpathian Mountains to the Danube Delta, its geography accommodates natural environments in a wide variety. The Romanian people knew to keep their identity in spite of the populations which shaped the history of Oriental Europe. The extraordinary richness of religious architecture reflects the deep faith of the Romanians, the only Latins of Greek Orthodox religion. It is time to proceed to the discovery of this country still unknown.
* Bernard HOULIAT, Tourist guide of Romania, "Guides Bleus Evasion», Paris, 2004.