Phuoc Loc Tho ancient village

Not far away from Ho Chi Minh City, Long An has both the beauty of Mekong Delta and the charm of the Southeast, which is suitable for exciting trips. One of the destinations can hardly be ignored when coming to Long An is Phuoc Loc Tho ancient village (Huu Thanh Commune, Duc Hoa district). 

Located in downtown Tan An, (center of politics, economy, culture, science and technology of Long An province ), more than 30km to the northeast, Phuoc Loc Tho ancient village has a total area of about 30,000m². It is set beside a peaceful, quiet and poetic river named Vam Co Dong which has called into poetry, history, and was also inhabited by Phu Nam people of ancient Oc Eo culture.

The ancient village Phuoc Loc Tho fascinates visitors by ancient houses with classic architectural style which has characteristic of Vietnamese people. Most of the houses here have been collected from Hue, Dak Lak, Gia Lai, Dak Nong and Quang Nam... and the western provinces. This is the ideal space to relax, retreat and soak in the natural. 

Next zone is a house in Middle Vietnam style, bearing the royal appearance. 6 other houses remain wooden stilt houses, unique style of Highland. In each house there are many items on display, precious ancient objects from daily life of kings, military agencies, landowners, farmers, such as carriage, telephone, phonograph, cups, ivory... to the spiritual objects of Vietnamese culture.Also, in Phuoc Loc Tho ancient village there is a temple modeled on the One Pillar Pagoda in Hanoi.

Leaving to the entertainment zone, visitors can admire more than 250 thousand kinds of orchids imported from Thailand, nearly 20 hundred-year-old trees and many bonsai are placed in the middle of the lake with varied designs.  

Renovating old houses have long been an elegant hobby of many local people and appeared in many localities in Vietnam including Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and other cities. Moreover, Phuoc Loc Tho ancient village has been preserved, restored almost intact, and arranged in harmony with hills, trees, and lakes. In 2012, the Phuoc Loc Tho ancient village was set in Vietnam Records Book for owning the largest number of old wooden houses with rich patterns in Vietnam. The village was also recognized by the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism in Long An province as a tourist destination and open for visitors, recreation, picnics, wedding... 

Coming to ancient village Phuoc Loc Tho, visitors not only have the opportunity to explore the hidden beauty of the old house, but also have the opportunity to explore the culture of Vietnam in the Mekong River area along the Vam Co river or ancient Oc Eo cultural, also enjoy the special dishes of the Long An area, listen to sweet folk songs... Therefore, the Phuoc Loc Tho ancient village is always crowded by tourists, especially those who love ancient beauty, Vietnam traditional architecture and photography enthusiasts to come here to visit and compose.

Da Sy forging vilage

For centuries blacksmiths from Da Sy Village have been hammering out quality metal products that are famous country-wideFrom early morning ‘til late afternoon, the sounds of steel and iron being beaten with hammers resounds throughout Da Sy Village, as it has for 400 years or more. The village outside Ha Noi City is famous for its metalware. The name is known throughout Viet Nam.The first impression one gets when entering Da Sy Village is a rush of excitement at the sounds of hard work and enthusiasm – a chorus of hammering on family anvils.

In the showroom of the Da Sy Association of Traditional Forgers, villagers often sit around telling historical stories about the village and different ways of production. Visitors can also see the metal being beaten into knives, scissors, sickles, hoes, spades and other farm and garden tools.

The village is one of the best places in the nation to see blacksmithing practices that go back nearly 3,000 years to the beginning of the Iron Age in Viet Nam, even further if one takes in the renowned bronze culture of the Dong Son period from which the ironwork evolved.

Da Sy knives and scissors can be found throughout Viet Nam. Even merchants from Laos and Cambodia put in regular orders. The village, formerly known as Ke Se Village, is in Kien Hung Ward in Ha Dong District. It is one of the many craft villages conserved by the Government.

Da Sy villagers are proud of their homeland for many reasons. Apart from the traditional forging trade passed from generation to generation, it is also well known for many successful doctors, some of them famous. That is the reason why the name was changed to Da Sy (Many Doctors).

According to the late Professor Tran Quoc Vuong, metal forgers from the Dong Son cultural region, of which today’s Da Sy Village can be included, provided the Hung founding kings with weapons to protect the nation, then known as Van Lang, against huge armies of northern invaders.This means that Da Sy’s blacksmiths can probably claim a direct connection with the founding kings of Viet Nam – and gives their work an historic edge few other towns or cities in Asia can claim.

Weapons made in the village have also been used in the battles for liberation in the 19th and 20th centuries, giving their work extra cachet. When peace returned to Viet Nam 40 years ago, the Da Sy people returned to making to agricultural implements such as ploughs, rakes and machinery parts or kitchen implements.

According to local historians, the present village rose to prominence under two blacksmith ancestors, Nguyen Thuat and Nguyen Thuan, several hundred years ago. They arrived from Thanh Hoa Province, which adds further substance to Professor Vuong’s theories.

Today’s Da Sy’s knives and choppers are still renowned for being hard wearing and able to retain a hard and sharp cutting edge. Although mass produced factory tools have flooded the market in recent decades, Da Sy people are full of confidence about their products and their future.Moreover, the designs of the hand-made village products are much more varied and individualistic. About 100 types of knives and more than 10 types of scissors are made in Da Sy Village.

According to the head of the Da Sy Association of Metal Forgers, Le Thanh Yen, the work is hard and includes many complex processes, such as making rough drafts, keeping fires burning, hitting red-hot iron into shape with hammers, tempering (strengthening) the metal with water – and then sharpening the final product

Thuy Ung Horn sculpture-Oyster-encrusting village

Thuy Ung horn carving village has long been famous for its handicraft products. Born and grown on this traditional land, artisans maintains his father career to create the horn products. With the abundance, the sophistication and high-quality,  products of Thuy Ung have been favored by domestic and foreign markets

Thuy Ung (Hoa Binh, Thuong Tin, Hanoi) is well-known as a horn comb village. But like many other traditional villages, it also faced to economic difficulty. In subsidy period, the buffaloes, cows are used for agriculture. Thus, material for production is not enough. The whole village had to move to the wooden comb, plastic comb for living and the horn comb seem to be eroded.

In order to make a horn comb, workers must do many stages. Each stage requires the workers to be very skillful, carefull. The making process is difficult because all horn comb is completely different from others and workers must depend on their horns to produce. The value of each is not only shown by horn material but also by the processing of workers.

With talented hands, the business acumen, and the psychology of customers knowledge  Thuy Ung villagers has innovated designs, diverse product. Besides traditional combs, he created some new products such as: bracelets, rings, brooches, combs ... with different designs and styles.

With his horn production and Thuy Ung village scale, the raw materials from domestic suppliers do not meet. So Thuy Ung villagers has to import raw materials from other countries such as Laos, Cambodia and other countries in Africa. "Horn of each continent has a different color.  So our products are also more abundant, more colorful, " a villager shared.

Horn comb is the best one for hair. It prevents and fixes broken hair, massages the scalp, maintains circulation, brings nutrients to hair roots. Currently, there are many fake horn combs on the market. Talking to us, he unveiled " to know real horn comb, the simplest and most efficient is combustion. If it is real product, it will become soft, and to a certain temperature it will burn down".

Thuy Ung workshop makes the hundreds of products per day. Currently,  products appear in many shops and  entertainment centers over the country, especially in Hanoi such as Vincom, Trang Tien Plaza, Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, Ngoc Son temple, Van Mieu Quoc Tu Giam .....

In order to take advantage of raw materials for environmental protection, villagers does not waste any part of the horn. They uses the smallest piece to make ornaments, even sucks the dust of horn to be sold to farmers as fertilizer. The using all materials is both increasing income and protecting environment.

Thai My bamboo- weaving village

For years, the village of Thai My in Cu Chi District, Ho Chi Minh City has specialised in making plenty of products from bamboo and rattan which are favourites in the domestic market and exported to some foreign countries. 

According to artisan Cao Thi Cu, 86 years old in Binh Thuong 2 hamlet, the craft of making bamboo and rattan products has existed in the village for over 100 years and has been handed down from generation to generation. For years, each hamlet in the village has specialized in making only one type of product and all the villagers, from the old to the young, are quite good at the craft.

There were times the village’s craft flourished and their products were much sought after in the market. During peak seasons, products were heaped up in every house and were sold in only one day. Even, the villagers could not meet the demand of customers. However, in recent years due to available plastic and aluminum products, the bamboo and rattan products have become less popular. Thanks to the authority’s support and the locals’ effort, the craft has been preserved. To have material for production, the villagers grow bamboo around their houses, in their gardens and fields. They invest more in production facilities and advanced technology to improve the quality of products which have gradually regained their position in the domestic market and are exported to some foreign countries.

The locals also created their own machines to whittle the bamboo barks off and make brims that help shorten the process of production and reduce expenditure. In 2007, Le Vinh Hanh in My Khanh A invented a machine with a capacity of whittling the bamboo’s bark that equaled the output of 15 people. To expand the production scale, he also imported 20 machines to split bamboo laths. At present, his workshop provides jobs for 25 people and supplies the material for all households in the village.

Visiting Thien Long Workshop owned by Le Thi Huych, we saw the strong revival of this craft. Her workshop, covering 3ha, was full of products for export. With 50 workers, her workshop can produce about 1,200-1,500 bamboo baskets/day and exports about 30-40 containers of products each year to Taiwan, China. Huych said that some years ago, her workshop could not provide enough bamboo baskets for Taiwan customers because of the considerably increasing demand during the peak season of harvesting cabbages. Therefore, to meet the timely demand of customers, she has plans to both produce and store products. 

Thanks to Ho Chi Minh City’s financial support policy and the assistance of the authority in Thai My Commune and the women’s association, the locals in Thai My drastically invest in technology and make diverse product to meet all tastes of customers

Thanh Ha pottery- making village

The Thanh Ha Pottery Village is located by the Thu Bon river, Cam Ha ward in the Quang Nam Province, 3 Km to the West of the ancient quarter. The Thanh Ha Pottery Village in Hoi An is a famous example in this type of establishment that aims at furthering tradition as well as employment. The pottery village has a long historical legacy and it used to play an important role in the  development of Hoi An ancient town.

The village originated in Thanh Hoa province and it formed at the end of the 15th century, developing vigorously in the later centuris, at the same time  as the Hoi An port. The products made by the villagers mainly serve the daily lives of the native people in domestic markets. The pottery products include bowls, jars, pots, animal shapes, in multiforms and colors, and they are lighter than the same products in other places

Although they have experienced various challenges over time, economic difficulties and foreign competition, the local inhabitants are always trying to preserve a traditional profession, inherited from their ancestors. The techniques that they use are unique and very diferent from those prevalent in other provinces. Therefore, the village is more of a live museum and it holds precious documentation resources for scientists who study about traditional pottery in Viet Nam and in South East Asia.

Thanh Ha pottery products are made by very well-trained craftmens. They use special clay mixing, burning and baking techniques, and heat modulations to bring out different colors. Depending on the time of burning and the temperature of the kiln, the color can be changed from pink, pink yellow to red, light brown and ink-black. Thanks to the special technique of processing soil and the combination of successive manipulations, the durability of their products is ranked at the top as compared to others in the country, and the brightness is the same as enamel. A soft and clear sound with echo can be heard by knocking on the product. Some products are offered on request or used for planting orchids; they are decorated with the sink and float vignettes that are simple but very nice.

Thanh Ha Pottery craftsmen have been invited by the Court of Nguyen Dynasty in Hue to create special products for various activities of the imperial palace. The same as Kim Bong wood craftsmen, they were placed at the eighth or nineth grade of the mandarin system. In the recent decades, Thanh Ha pottery has been sold throughout the country and sometimes abroad (Canada, America, France). It is also the most trusted name for contractors engaged in tasks of renovation.

Tourists visiting this wonderful village will take pleasure in collecting souvenirs they have seen the skillful craftsmen make before their own eyes.

Van Lam embroidery village

Van Lam village in Dong Hai commune, Hoa Lu district, Ninh Binh province was previously called O Lam (Forest of crows). In addition to its rich cultural and historical tradition, the village is famous for its traditional embroidery craft.  Located by the famous Tam Coc-Bich Dong tourist site, the village has become a popular tourist destination. 

The embroidery craft appeared in Van Lam village in the 13th century in the Tran dynasty. At the gate of the village, there is an ancient temple dedicated to the founder of the local embroidery craft. Vu Thanh Lam, a local elder, says Van Lam people worship the founder of the embroidery craft on the 15th day of the first lunar month: “Legends say that Ms Tran Thi Dung, the Great Tutor Tran Thu Do’s wife, came to the village with other people of the Tran royal family and taught local people the weaving and embroidery crafts. The first local products were clothes decorated with bird patterns and parallel sentences and robes for the royal family. Since then, the embroidery craft has become popular among local people. Van Lam embroidery products have found their way to other regions of Vietnam and overseas. We set up this temple to show our deep gratitude to the founder of the craft and to preserve the craft”.

The temple also worships Dinh Xuan Nghenh and Dinh Xuan Xoan, who brought the lace craft to the village in the early 20th century. 

Local women demonstrate their embroidery craft at the Tam Coc wharf while waiting for boat customers. As the craft is handed down through generations, most people in Van Lam get involved in creating embroidery and lace. Men in the village master the embroidery craft just like the women. With thin colorful threads, the skillful hands of local artisans make embroidery products that are as sophisticated and beautiful as masterpieces of art. Ms Nguyen Thi Lua of Van Lam village says embroidery is a detailed craft: “We cannot say how long it takes to make an embroidery picture because it depends on the type of the picture that we make. It takes more time to make more detailed and larger pictures. The craft requires artisans to master every step”. 

In Van Lam village, nearly 700 households make embroidery pictures. Each house in the village is a workshop whose artisans are family members.

Van Lam embroidery products are famous not only in Vietnam but also overseas. In recent years, they have been exported to Japan, the US, Germany and France. Van Lam artisans are constantly creating new products and modifying their products to meet market demand. They have created more than 200 lace patterns and combined embroidery and lace to make beautiful pictures. Ms Lua says:“Customers’ needs are diverse. Some people like blankets, some like table cloths, mattresses or clothes. They are interested in seeing how we make embroidery pictures. We always try to make quality products to introduce to customers”.

Van Lam people have organized package tours to introduce tourists to local scenic spots and embroidery craft. Decorative patterns depicting the Vietnamese countryside, charming Vietnamese girls, and flowers on Van Lam embroidery products are most impressive.

Chu Dau pottery- making village

When talking about ancient pottery villages, one immediately thinks of Bat Trang, Hanoi’s ancient ceramic village. But another ancient pottery village named Chu Dau, thanks to a discovery made in the 1980s, is beginning to rival Bat Trang. Chu Dau’s ceramic craft, once famous worldwide, has been resurrected after disappearing for 3 centuries. 

The name Chu Dau literally means “wharf”. Chu Dau village in the northern province of Hai Duong was known only as a busy trading hub until evidence was uncovered that it used to produce ceramic vases that were renowned around the world.

The story of Chu Dau’s revival as a ceramic village began with a 1980 letter from Makoto Anabuki, Secretary of the Japanese Embassy in Vietnam, to Ngo Duy Dong, Secretary of Hai Duong Province's Party Committee. In this letter, Anabuki wrote that during a working trip to Turkey, he had visited Topkapi Saray Museum in Istanbul and was very interested to see an ancient Vietnamese ceramic jar on display. On the jar was written: "In the Year of 1945 of the 8th Thai Hoa reign, a ceramic maker of the Bui Family in the Nam Sach area drew on this jar just for fun." Makoto Anabuki asked the Party Secretary to find the origin of this valuable jar 4 years later. From the information given, excavations uncovered relics proving that Chu Dau village used to produce ceramic products of high artistic merit. The discovery that wowed pottery experts also shocked the local residents. Nguyen Minh Tu, is a village elder of Chu Dau, says: "I never knew there were pottery kilns in this village although I sometimes found pieces of glazed terra-cotta in my garden. Only when experts came to my house and conducted excavations did I learn that those were pieces of national treasures. My fellow villagers and I are very happy and excited to receive experts, even foreign experts, to our village to research the village’s ancient craft of pottery."

In 1993 and 1997, at shipwreck sites in the Philippines’ Pandanan sea and near Vietnam’s Cham island, scientists found more than 340,000 porcelain objects from Chu Dau village, 240,000 of them unbroken. This proved that Chu Dau ceramic items were exported across the globe. Research has confirmed that Chu Dau’s ceramic craft was at its height from the 14th to the 17th century. There are currently 46 museums around the world displaying pottery products from Chu Dau village, some of the items worth as much as 1 million USD. In 2000, Nam Sach district native Nguyen Huu Thang, Director of the Saigon Haprosimex Company, wanted to revive Chu Dau as a ceramic village, copying excavated fine ceramic pieces for export and developing the village’s tourism potential. Villager Nguyen Van Luu was assigned the task of reviving the craft. He elaborated: "Our village’s ceramic craft has been highly praised by the international community. After much research, we decided it would be a very good thing to revive ancestors’ ancient craft. We believed this would generate jobs for many local people."

As part of this effort, in October, 2001, a Chu Dau ceramic workshop was established. Efforts were made to find and collect ancient ceramic pieces, and invite experts and artisans from other ceramic villages to collaborate on research into the colours of traditional ceramics. About 200 young people from Chu Dau Village were selected and taught the basic techniques and professional secrets of each production process. These apprentices will become expert artisans in the family ceramic groups of the future. From this workshop, many Chu Dau ceramic items have been exported globally, earning the villagers a better living now while paving the way for them to do even better when craft village tourism begins to spread their reputation to every corner of the world.