The art of Bat Trang ceramics

Bat Trang ceramic products of pearl; cracked and ash-colored enamel are the most sophisticated in the world and are now displayed in famous museums throughout the world, including Guimet (France), Brussels (Belgium), the Rijec museum (Holland), the national Museum of Australia, San Francisco (America) and Tokyo (Japan).

Bat Trang is an ancient village to travel to Vietnam situated on the northern bank of the Red-river, about 8 kilometers from the center of Hanoi with 72 white ground hillocks and Chu Dau china of Hai Duong province.

As far back as 600 years the village has provided ceramic bowls, cups, bottles, jars and tiles to the whole of Northern Vietnam. With precious soil, unique secret methods of making ceramic enamel and wonderful artistic depictions on the products, Bat Trang ceramics have become valuable goods that are highly appreciated by domestic and international communities and have been exported to places as far away as Indonesia, India, Japan, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt. Bat Trang bricks were also used to build the Forbidden City in Beijing and famous mosques in Egypt and the Middle East thanks to their creative carved images.

After rebuilding and developing the handicraft village, Bat Trang has become a big center for tourism and trade in Hanoi. Hundreds of domestic and foreign tourists with Vietnam Culture Travel visit Bat Trang daily to buy unique products made by the skillful craftsmen. When you come here, you are not only able to choose from a wide range of goods but you can also go for a sightseeing tour or try to make china products yourself under the supervision of one of the craftsmen. Furthermore, the area is renowned as a place of literature in Hanoi, with 346 people passing national examinations here and going on to become the highest-ranking officials of Vietnam in the feudal time. The village festival is held from the 15 to 22 February of lunar calendar (about March of the solar calendar), at the same time as the Gom market festival, one of the biggest market festivals of Vietnam.

Youths preserve Ca Tru folk singing

Ca Tru folk singing is a unique musical genre of Vietnam. In 2009, UNESCO recognized Ca Tru as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity in need of urgent protection. This is a great honor for Vietnam but also a task for the country to preserve and promote it in the modern world.

VOV reporter To Tuan has a story about how the younger generation is preserving Ca Tru folk singing. Ca Tru is a unique type of folk music in Vietnam that dates back to the 15 th century. Ca Tru folk singing has a strong influence on people’s cultural and social life in the Red River Delta.

Throughout history, Ca Tru has retained its vitality because of its uniqueness in Vietnamese culture. On October 1, 2009, Vietnamese Ca Tru folk singing was officially recognized by UNESCO as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity in need of urgent protection. The recognition means that Vietnam needs to make a greater effort to preserve and promote this heritage.

Folklore Researcher To Ngoc Thanh says: “In the early years of this century, Ca Tru is on the verge of falling into oblivion. Compared with other art genres, Ca Tru is in a fragile situation losing its importance in people’s life. So, it is not easy to bring it back to the contemporary life, especially with the popularity of Karaoke and MTV. We will begin by restoring the popularity of Ca Tru among middle-age and elderly people. We need an audience first and then we will introduce its attraction to the younger generation”.

The vitality of Ca Tru folk singing in modern life is due to the efforts of many generations. There are 63 Ca Tru art troupes and clubs with more than 700 members in 15 cities and provinces around the country. In addition to establishing Ca Tru clubs, much attention has been paid to training younger artists to perform Ca Tru. Hanoi is one of the localities with the largest number of Ca Tru clubs.

 Many young artists have been performing Ca Tru. 17- year-old Nguyen Kieu Anh belongs to the 7 th generation of a Thai Ha art troupe associated with Ca Tru. She says: ” I’m a young person and I have a passion for different types of art. 7 generations in my family havebeen associated with Ca Tru, so I have been influenced by Ca Tru songs and sounds since I was born.

As a result, I have a great passion for Ca Tru folk singing”. With its regular performances, the Hanoi Ca Tru club has helped increase the public’s knowledge of Ca Tru and draw them, especially the younger generation, to this folk art. By watching a Ca Tru performance in Hanoi’s Old Quarter, Pham Hong Phuong, a student at the Financial Academy learned more about this heritage.

She and her friends set up a team of volunteers to preserve and promote this art genre. ” Our major aim is to preserve Ca Tru because this art genre has been recognized by UNESCO as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity in need of urgent protection. Ca Tru is in need of protection efforts by everyone, especially young Vietnamese people”, said Phuong .

The Hanoi Ca Tru Volunteers Club has 50 members. Most of them are students in Hanoi. They volunteer to sell tickets, guide foreign audiences to Ca Tru performances and even MC the show. The volunteers, fans and singers of Ca Tru play important roles in preserving Vietnamese Ca Tru folk singing.

Dong Ho- Vietnamese Folk Art Painting

  Dong Ho Painting is a kind of Vietnamese folk painting originating in Dong Ho Village in Song Ho Commune, Thuan Thanh District, Bac Ninh Province. Dong Ho paintings have about 300 years of history in the north of Vietnam.

 

Dong Ho pictures are printed on a special kind of Dzo paper. The printing paper is made of bark of a tree called “Dzo”. Artists use pine leave brushes to coat Dzo paper with sea bivalve mollusk powder to create a sparkling colorful background. Colors of the painting are refined from various kinds of tree leaves, which people can easily find in Vietnam.

 

 Dong Ho- Vietnamese Folk Art Painting

Traditional artists use all-natural colors for their pictures: burnt bamboo leaves for black, cajuput leaves for green, copper rust for blue, pine resin for amber, and crushed egg shells mixed with paste for white. The painting is covered by a layer of sticky rice paste to protect the painting and their colors. They are so long lasting, so that it is very difficult to make them dimmer even time or daylight.

Dong Ho Painting has produced hundreds of famous works such as the romantic and humorous “Catching coconuts”, “Teacher” which captures old educational practice and “Jealousy scene” satirizing the polygamous system. But the most famous ones are the pictures of pigs with Ying and Yang circles on the bodies. People in the countryside used to buy Dong Ho pictures for decoration during Tet.

In the past, December was the month when households started to produce pictures for Tet. Dong Ho pictures were sold at most rural markets. Those who went shopping for Tet never failed to bring home several Dong Ho pictures, believing they would bring good luck.

Let’s take a trip to Bac Ninh in Vietnam travel, once pay a visit to Dong Ho village to see Vietnamese folk art paintings.