Story and Photography by Mary L. Peachin
Chaotic! is an understatement for describing the streets of Hanoi. Crossing any street is a frightening experience. The unwritten rule of navigation advises you to walk straight and steady, as motorcycles—some loaded with children and burdened with market goods—bicycles, taxis, trishaws, and buses whiz past you on all sides. Many ignore traffic lights and lanes, making the experience of crossing a street feel like the ultimate game of “chicken.”
Vietnam is an S-shaped, 130,000-square-mile nation bordering the South China Sea, China, Laos, and Cambodia. Although well recognized as one of the world’s leading exporters of rice, the country is also a large producer of coffee and is becoming a major manufacturing center. According to the BBC, it is the second leading supplier of clothes to the U.S.
Trang ceramic village.
Vietnam’s capital, Hanoi, lies in the heart of the north’s Red River valley. East of the city is the port of Haiphong, a gateway to Ha Long Bay, a UNESCO World Heritage site recognized for its towering limestone formations. The port has also become a popular destination for cruise ships.
Hanoi has its share of nice hotels, some dating to the days when the area was occupied by the French. In 2014, on my third trip to Vietnam, my husband, David, and I chose to stay in a threestar property off the tourist path. Our boutique hotel, the Hanoi Elegance Ruby, was simple, but charming. The newest member of the Elegance chain, it is ideally located plumb center in the Old Quarter. The accommodations were cozy, the service was friendly, and the full breakfast was tasty.
Our room overlooked a lane too narrow for automobiles and lined with small shops selling produce, custom men’s shoes, and a variety of other goods. Not long after daybreak, vendors would arrive to stock their tiny shops. They became our 6:00 a.m. wake-up call. On a trip to Vietnam years before, I had seen many more quang gánh—heavily loaded baskets balanced on the ends of a bamboo pole resting on one shoulder—than I saw this trip. They seem to have been replaced by (much louder) motorcycles and bicycles.
Although we enjoyed our time in Hanoi, especially an eye-opening food tour, there are other areas that are worth exploration. The Vietnamese government has recognized about 1,500 handicraft villages, of which about three hundred offer traditional handicrafts and help maintain the country’s cultural heritage.
Like some of the neighborhoods and streets in Hanoi that specialize in the sale of a particular item or items, these villages have developed around a single economy. There is even a village whose restaurants feature snake. In one such restaurant, the eldest diner receives the still-beating heart of a cobra as a token of virility. On an earlier visit to Vietnam, we visited three of the traditional-craft villages.
On the day we toured, the temperature was similar to a July day in Tucson, only the 100 degrees was heavy with humidity.
Thai village, Duyen Thai commune
Ha Thai Village Lacquerware
The centuries-old technique of applying and polishing layer upon layer of lacquer—the resin from particular species of trees—can be observed in Ha Thai village, Duyen Thai commune.
Like all other Vietnamese ancient villages in the Red River delta, Ha Thai has a communal house and pagoda for worshipping the village founder. Its distinguished lacquerware, dating to the 15th century, has made the village famous far and wide.
In general, before Vietnamese lacquerware was introduced at a trade show in Paris in 1930, most of it was produced by families for household use and to be sold to temples. Between 1954 and 1990, most lacquerware was produced by cooperatives and exported to a limited number of countries. With the government’s shift to a market economy in 1990, the industry grew rapidly, both in quality and quantity. We saw lacquered boxes addressed to all parts of the world.
Creating lacquerware products includes a centuries-old technique of inlaying egg shell or mother-of-pearl onto a base of gauze and lacquer on a wood surface, then applying additional layers of lacquer to build up the surface. After each layer is applied, the piece is dried and rubbed in water. Finally, the piece is polished to a high gloss.
Typically, 20 steps and no fewer than 100 days are involved in the process. Lacquer is also combined with mineral pigments and used in decorative painting.
Van Phuc Silk Village
Our next stop was Van Phuc, a 1,200-year-old village known for its traditional weaving and premium silk products. Located along the banks of the Nhue Thi River, Van Phuc is six miles southwest of the Hanoi Old Quarter.
Originally, silk was considered precious handwork and used to tailor royalty and the aristocracy. In 1931, Van Phuc silk was displayed at the Paris International Colonial Exposition, where it was admired and preferred by the French. Between 1958 and 1988, Vietnamese silk was primarily exported to Eastern Europe, but since 1990 it has become coveted worldwide.
Although most weaving has been mechanized, some home factories continue to use manual looms, which allows visitors to observe the original Vietnamese craft of silk making. During our tour, we expected to be able to purchase silk items, but as was the case in the village that produced lacquerware, we were essentially visiting
factories in homes, and there were no products made available for sale to us.
worshipping, and decoration.
Bat Trang Ceramic Village
The seven-century-old village of Bat Trang is located along the left bank of the Red River, in an area known for its clay soil. From the 15th to the 17th century, Bat Trang lay between two ancient trading centers, a location that helped introduce the village’s ceramics to foreign markets via Japanese, Chinese, and Western merchant ships.
During the 18th and 19th centuries, foreign-trade restrictions made for some diffi cult times for the village. Since 1986, economic reforms and development have once again exposed the world to Vietnamese porcelain and pottery.
Bat Trang ceramics are produced for daily household use, worshipping, or decorative purposes, and artists continue to improve their production techniques and introduce
new features for a broader customer base.
If you visit Vietnam, don’t miss the city of Hanoi and the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Halong Bay. But add a day of adventure to your itinerary by visiting the centuries-old vocational villages to observe the making of traditional crafts of Vietnam.
Mary L. Peachin is a local freelance writer.
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