Tuyển dụng

Discovering Craft Villages in Vietnam(20/09/2009)

With their festivals and traditional industries, their communal halls, pagodas, temples, and vernacular buildings, the villages around Hà Nôi possess a rich capital of cultural, architectural and craft heritage. Less than one hour’s journey from the capital are over 500 specialist craft villages, producing an array of religious and artistic objects, as well as food products, industrial goods, textiles, basketwork and much more. Despite the ordeals that Vietnam has endured, these traditions have survived; today they constitute the basis of material, social and spiritual culture among the village communities of the Red River Delta.

The artisans themselves and their local institutions perceive cultural tourism as a way of further improving the fortunes of craft village communities. They also see it as an opportunity to attract wider attention to their heritage.

Until recently, few guides or tourists had ventured into these villages, some of which are lost beyond a maze of roads and tracks amid the rice paddies of Hà Nôi’s hinterland. Little is commonly known of their history and the skills they have maintained. Few of these villages are signposted, yet collectively they are home to a wealth of architectural, religious and craft heritage in the Upper Delta.This book, the fruit of several years’ research by Vietnam specialists, comprises ten itineraries, blending potted histories, legends, descriptions of craft techniques, signposted walks and maps, all designed to introduce readers to over 40 craft villages, none of them very far from Hà Nôi. You are probably familiar with the wide variety of Vietnamese handicrafts on sale in the shops of Hà Nôi’s Old Quarter or in Western cities. This guide will now give you the chance to explore vibrant villages that are often beautiful, always fascinating. You will meet the anonymous artisans who practise these crafts and to learn something of their lives and their enduring skills.

Sylvie Fanchette
Nicholas Stedman