Cat Cat brocade village

Nestled in a beautiful valley about three kilometers from Sapa Town, Cat Cat- the old village of ethnic groups- attracts tourists from all over the world for its distinctive customs and practices which have been lost in almost ethnic villages. The village is within easy walking distance from any hotel in downtown Sapa.

Overview

Cat Cat cultural village was formed in 19th century by the gathering of some families belonging to some ethnic groups living in mountainous areas of northern Vietnam, especially Black H’Mong .They lived next to each other along the mountain side and cultivated surrounding their home. Rice and corn were grown in terraced fields, while traditional handicrafts such as twisting flax and weaving fabric have been well-kept. Through times, Cat Cat Village has transferred to one appealing feature of Sapa’s tourism.

What to see?

Visiting Cat Cat, tourists will be impressed by the peacefully picturesque sceneries. People can easily catch sight of women sitting in front of the loom with colorful pieces of brocade, while children playing around with pets or even livestock. From the plain brocade, then women can carefully dye them with special leaves and embroider beautiful patterns of flower and animal on them. Moreover, many residents of Cat Cat Village are also skillful at manipulating sophisticated gold and silver jewelry.

The original architect of H’Mong people is interesting as well. Their house typically contains three rooms with three doors and po mu wood roof, while the walls’ material is sawn timber. There are other indispensable parts of the house such as altar, kitchen, places for keeping food and sleeping, etc.

What to do?

Cat Cat Village gives tourists a chance to have a glimpse into the daily life of local ethnic people, as well as take part in traditional activities such as weaving fabric. It is also a good opportunity to purchase some traditional souvenirs and handicrafts right from the craftsmen. People can also try some local food selling the way upcoming to the hill.

In addition, the road leading to Cat Cat Village is an easy and interesting route for trekking. The spot is only within 20-30m minutes walking from Sapa center; and the hike through mountains will offer tourists the wonderful picture of rice paddies, water fall, or even water buffaloes grazing leisurely.

Duy Vinh sedge mat village

Being created by alluvium of three rivers Thu Bon, Trung Giang and Ly Ly, Duy Vinh commune (Duy Xuyen district, Quang Nam province) has been famous for a long time of weaving sedge mats. The profession of weaving sedge mat was derived from Nga Son – Thanh Hoa province, and introduced into Quang Nam in early 14th century. 

Sedge grass is the main material in mat weaving; it is easy to grow in this land and gives high productivity. There are many kinds of mat like plain mat, colored mat, embossed mat…; therefore depending on the intended use of each one, farmers will harvest sedge in many different sizes. After being harvested in July and August every year, sedge will be dried, dyed by color ink and stored for weaving all year round. Many clients come to Duy Vinh to buy sedge mats or they will be sold at Ban Thanh sedge mats market.

Duy Vinh craft village has 350 households, 300 of which have weaved sedge mats from generations to generations and supplied nearly 10,000 pairs of sedge mats each day to the market. The weaving process requires two people, one is the designer for the pattern by controlling the jutes up and down rhythmically, the other is responsible for inserting the sedges into the space between jutes. This work requires patience and experience to make a perfect work. From the yarns of green, red, purple, yellow sedge ... with brain and heart, the weavers have created hundreds of perfect color mixing picture.

In many years before, this product was very hard to consume and heatly competed by industrial produced mats. However, some years recently, many people returned to use sedge mats; that helps to resuscitate this valuable traditional occupation. Duy Vinh mats craft village is not only creating job for local residents but also an attractive destination of worldwide tourists

Ban soy sauce village

The Ban craft village produces arguably the most delicious soy sauce in Ban Township, Yen Nhan District, Hung Yen Province.

Ban soy sauce is so popular because it is made from large-grain sticky rice, small-grain soy bean, and in particular dinged-well water. There is only one well in Ban Village to supply the water to make the soy sauce, which is its sole purpose. Therefore, coming to Ban village to witness the sauce’s production in Hung Yen is recommended to tourists as it is a fascinating sight around harvest time. 

March to August is that time for the villagers, so expect to see hundreds of jars in diverse sizes filling yards in every household. Making soy sauce is not difficult but making Ban soy sauce is an art-form.

Producers have to wash the rice carefully then soak it in water and cooked into sticky rice, next scatter the sticky rice onto a large bamboo flat basket and dry it in an airy place until the rice turns yellow. Soy beans must be roasted until the bean is brown and then the beans are soaked in a clean jar for one week. After the beans have fermented, producers will add a little salt and more soy beans into the water and stir regularly. The sauce must be fermented on sunny days.

Coming to Hung Yen, tourists will also be suggested to visit the Pho Hien relic complex, of which Mau Temple is a highlight and a mystery. Once stepping into the temple, travelers will be amazed by the huge seven-hundred-year-old tree which makes a domed gate for the temple. Another attraction tourists should not miss is the huge longan tree, called Nhan To, in front of Hien Pagoda. Around 300 years old, the tree is a sacred place for locals as they believe the tree brings prosperity to the land.

Another relic of the Pho Hien relic complex worth visiting is Thien Hau Temple, Dong Do-Quang Hoi Temple and Chuong (Bell) Pagoda which is endowed with poetic scenery and boasts a stone bridge spanning a lotus pond and 18 statues of Arhats. Hung Yen Literature Temple holds a collection of ancient steles. 

Pho Hien also has stunning Vietnamese architecture, which is decorated with the colors of folk belief and religion, and some are considered high in artistic value. Along with their architectural features, these relics have preserved utensils for religious offerings, palanquins, hammocks, horizontal lacquered boards and many pairs of wood panels with skillfully-inscribed parallel sentences.

More importantly, the relics of Pho Hien preserve their innate ancient beauty. With the wet rice civilization and culture, we catch the colors of bronze, stone, wood, tile and soil on each roof, door and path, which create a sense of immortality of each relic.

With its role as a key link from the traffic artery of the Red River, Pho Hien was once a frontal port of Thang Long Citadel that opened to the sea, ranking second in importance to Hanoi, as goes an old Vietnamese saying. Today, Pho Hien residents are embracing an ambition to revive its glorious past.

Duong Lam ancient village

After the recognition of Hoi An ancient town, Hanoi old quarter, Duong Lam village in Son Tay Town (some 60km to the west of Hanoi Capital) is the first ancient village recognised as a national relic by the Ministry of Culture and Information.

Two of Vietnam’s kings, Phung Hung (761-802) and Ngo Quyen (896-944) were born in Duong Lam, giving the village its prestige. Both men led resistance wars against northern invasion and after winning national independence, were crowned kings. After their deaths, the local people built temples in their honour.

The ancient village has a history of about 1,200 years with many houses dating back up to 400 years. One special thing about the village is that most of the buildings here are made of laterite and mud, two materials that are abundant in the area. Laterite is used on house walls, gates, wells, temple walls, and so forth. The mud is taken from ponds. Apart from its historical and tourism values, Duong Lam ancient village is an important place for scientists to study resident communities in ancient agriculture. The village gate, banyan, well, communal house are important factors in classifying Duong Lam ancient village.

Well

The common well was built in every hamlet in Duong Lam village. The well brings the name of the hamlet it is located. At present, each family possesses its own well but the common well has been protected because it maintains many imprints of the villagers.

Communal house

The communal house is a worshipping place of the god – founder of the village. The ancient village consists of 5 villages so it has 5 communal houses. Doai Giap and Cam Lam communal houses dedicate to Phung Hung – the national hero who won the victory against invaders under Duong Dynasty; Cam Thinh communal house dedicates both the founder of the village and great mandarin Cao Phuc Dien – the hero under Le Dynasty. Dong Sang communal house worships the God but it was destroyed by fire and was restored by financial support from people. The god Tan Vien Son was dedicated in Mong Phu communal house. So far, Mong Phu communal house is a gathering place of the villagers for cultural activities. The communal house was made carefully with sophisticated decoration details. It is considered as a flower of unique sculptural architecture.

Architecture of the house

The wooden house mainly has 5 or 7 spans with 2 wings. It has 5 rows of columns, sometime 1 row disappears. The house has specialized by sophisticatedly carved details in the form of flowers, leaves, clouds.

A system of wooden doors is very firm. Each span has 4 leaves of the door with upper and lower joints. Thresholds were made of firm wood above 40-50cm from the ground and 10cm from the floor. This distance helps to ventilate well, avoid humidity for the thresholds. The whole system of the thresholds is the tie system linking all spans together.

For tangible culture relic, Duong Lam has 21 relic sites, consisting of temples, pagodas and tombs and ten of which have been classified as national and provincial relics. For intangible cultural relic, Duong Lam has preserved various festivals, customs and literature on the people and land of Duong Lam through different period of time. For ecological environment, Duong Lam has many beautiful scenes linked with legendary stories such as Guom Hill, Ho Gam Hill and tales on the two kings Phuong Hung and Ngo Quyen.

Tranh Khuc " chung" cake village

Tranh Khuc Village in Duyen Ha Commune of Thanh Tri District, Hanoi is known throughout the country for its traditional craft of making Banh chung (square glutinous rice cake). At present nearly 200 households in the village are involved in making Banh chung to supply the markets on the occasion of Tet (New Year Festival).

In many homes all members of the family are involved in making Banh chung at their residence. Quantity varies from one household to another, averaging hundreds of cakes a day, but up to 1,500 cakes at Tet. In recent years, Banh chung made by Tranh Khuc villagers have been exported to many countries, including Russia, Australia and Thailand, mainly to meet the needs of overseas Vietnamese.

The Banh chung produced here is renowned for its distinctive flavour. Village elders are most experienced at making these special cakes and generation after generation they hand down their expertise, keeping the craft alive in Tranh Khuc Village.

Each step in making Banh chung involves a professional touch. The Dong leaves used to wrap the cakes must be large, green and untorn. After the leave ribs and petioles are removed they are washed and left to dry. The glutinous rice must be large-size grains which are washed and drained. The green beans must be of top quality. They are husked, cooked and pounded into paste. The pork must be fresh and not too lean. It is parboiled to eliminate any odour and then cut into large pieces and marinated with spices and pepper to make it soft and delicious. To make a cake, four or five layers of Dong leaves are used as the wrap of the dumpling, with the green blade of the outside leave turned outward. The dumpling is made of a layer of glutinous rice, a layer of green bean topped by pork and then another layer of green bean topped by another layer of glutinous rice. The dumpling must be wrapped tightly to maintain a uniform shape. The cakes are placed into a big pot and boiled for eight to eleven hours. 

The trademark of Banh chung made in Tranh Khuc Village has been registered to the Hanoi Industry and Trade Department and the National Office of Intellectual Property of Vietnam under the Ministry of Science and Technology. With its typical flavour and good quality Banh chung of Tranh Khuc Village have been exported to many countries. 

Wraping all the dumpling into a square cakeBesides making the traditional Banh chung, Tranh Khuc villagers can alter the ingredients to suit the tastes of offshore customers. For example, people in Australia like to have egg added to the recipes while US customers insist on having chicken added, or the Taiwanese like to have Chinese sausage included in the Banh chung.

According to Nguyen Van Thanh, Chief of Van Uyen Hamlet, Tranh Khuc Village produces Banh chung all year round but the busiest time is around Tet (New Year Festival). The trademark of Banh chung made in Tranh Khuc has become the pride of the villagers.

Phuc Sen forging village

Phuc Sen forging village is located in  Quang Yen district, Cao Bang province. Phuc Sen hammer village is a traditional trade village, appeared over 1000 years ago. Phuc Sen is a rocky village. Main products of the village are metal and steel hand-held agricultural equipments and woodwork equipments. During Vietnamese’s  war resistance, Phuc Sen forging village took park in casting cannon and grenade casing.

Phuc Sen commune has 10 hamlets, 6 of them involved in forging. Stepping into the village, we can find forging furnace everywhere. Main products of the village are metal and steel hand-held agricultural equipments and woodwork equipments. Those bushwhackers, axes, scissors, knives, hoes, shovels, reaping hooks, etc are made from skillful hands and secret of forgers.

Phuc Sen forged products are identical. By examining the temper water, we can see the quality of the knife. In addition, professional forgers  can test by moving the knife on a nail. One that moves smoothly is a good one. It’s important to make an evenly thin blade and use good tempering water. Though there are not many designs for the products, Phuc Sen farm tools have become a trade mark around the country. 

When visiting these hamlets, one can see a diverse range of forges and tools sold on both sides of the road, while the sound of hammer blows resounds across the village.Besides the normal forge tools, such as bellows, anvils, hammers and water troughs, the Nung An people also build earthen cylinder kilns, about 80cm in height and 60cm in diameter.

Thanks to their secret techniques and expertise,  Phuc Sen villagers have a reputation for making very sharp and durable products.  To promote the development of the traditional craft,  villagers often bring their products to sell at Quang Uyen Market so they can raise funds for agricultural tools, blacksmithing tools and materials.

Lately they have started selling their products to other localities in the country.

Chuon "Tet" cake village

An Truyen village, also known as Chuon, in central Vietnam, has been famous for Tet cakes since the reign of King Bao Dai.On the 24th of every lunar month of December, hundreds of households in An Truyen Village, Thua Thien-Hue Province, start making Tet cakes made from sticky rice.

Mrs. Huynh Tam, 84, sold more than 1,600 Tet cakes in the last two weeks of the lunar month of December.Tam said, “My family has been making Tet cakes for 4 generations, so all my children and grandchildren know how to make the best cakes. The secret is using the rice from Cua Paddy Fied, in the village. The rice has to be rinsed, dried, then cleaned three times with water. Then green beans are cooked with flavouring. Lard also makes the cakes have their special taste.”."The difference in taste of the cakes made here is quite clear, especially when they’re freshly out of the boiling pot. You can smell the green beans along with the fat,” she said.

At the house of Ho Van Toan, 10 people were busy preparing and wrapping cakes that have been made by his daughter a law and children. “I just can’t take any more order. It’s insufficient to sell more than 20 cakes for a customer at a time. The reason our cakes our so special is the addition of flavouring, green bean and pork fat. It’s also important to add the right amount of pepper, fish sauce, seasoning powder and other spices for the cake.”

Mr Doan Ran, 78, is experienced in the production of Tet cakes. He said that An Truyen sticky rice was among specialties offered to King Bao Dai of the Nguyen Dynasty. The king also specifically asked that this rice be used to make Tet cakes, then presented them to court officials on the Lunar New Year.

After adding all the ingredients, cakes must be wrapped in the leaves of Su banana . These leaves are what give the cake it’s colour, which can be kept for between 15 and 30 days. Even tying the cake takes skill. It must not be too loose or too tight. The cake is cooked using long-burning "duong" wood that makes a fire that lasts up to three hours.

Price of Chuon Village’s Tet cake remains unchanged at VND10,000 (USD0.5) and VND30,000 (USD1.5) each, depending on different sizes. Many people, including those from Danang, Ho Chi Minh City and even in northern provinces come to the village to buy their cakes.