Traditional New Year Painting of Vietnamese

Chủ nhật - 27-12-2015

You may have seen them before. They adorn the walls of Vietnamese restaurants everywhere in the world and Vietnamese overseas hang them up as Lunar New Year approaches. In Vietnam, production of these folk paintings peaks right before Tet as merchants stock up in anticipation of heavy customer demand. These paintings are traditionally used to decorate homes for the New Year festival.

Producing Dong Ho paintings is a trade of time-honoured tradition of the village of Dong Ho. It is Dong Ho paintings that make Dong Ho village famous across Vietnam as well as in the world. In fact, only Dong Ho village’s people can turn out real Dong Ho paintings.

New Year Painting

The village of Dong Ho is in Ha Bac, the province just north of Hanoi. Come there, besides impressive paintings, you can enjoy the beautiful rural scenery and fresh air of the Vietnam’s countryside. However, whenever people mention to Dong Ho village, first of all, they remember Dong Ho paintings.

The production of Dong Ho paintings is rather sophisticated. It can be described as follows

The printmaking process

The prints are made by brushing paint made of local material onto carved wood blocks, then pressing the blocks on paper. The print is left to dry after each color is applied before another color is added. Three to five colors are used to make each print.

The wood blocks

The wooden blocks are made from the thi tree, a soft fibrous wood. The block is used as a printing plate, with one block for each color, print and size. A big shelf in the printing room holds hundreds of wood blocks. Among them, some are 200 years old. Wood block carving is an art handed down within the family by the master to his children. In the village, there are some families have been making prints for many generations. Coming to visit Dong Ho village, you can see many sons and several daughters working, learning the craft from their fathers and carrying on the family tradition.

The paper

The prints are all done on traditional giay gio paper made from the bark fiber of the do tree. This tree grows in the northwestern part of the country. The sheath is stripped off the tree trunk and soaked in a pond for a month. It is then dipped in limewater for two weeks, followed by a wash. After ten days or so the pulp is poured into frames which are stacked for several more days. Then the stacks are arranged on a wall to dry and pressed smooth with a stone mortar.

The paper is coated with a pulverized powder made from shellfish found in the Hai Phong area. The shellfish is brought to the village and coated with mud for two years. The entire mixture is then ground up by stone mortar and put into a water tank to be filtered and pressed into balls that weigh about a kilo and they are left to dry on the walls or floors. They are then used as needed and mixed with glue. This mixture is called diep powder.

The brush

The prints are painted with a beautiful brush made of spruce. The thet brushes are made from dried spruce leaves bound together. These brushes are made in a village not far away and come in various sizes. The leaves are pounded with salt water and a hammer to make the brush tip soft enough and are bound together and flattened at the top.

The paint

The folk art simplicity has strong and simple contours with bright colors that are made from dried bamboo leaves, the local fruits, flowers, and leaves. The paint is mixed in large earthenware pots. The colors are mixed by hand and each artisan has his or her own formula. The red paint is made from soi son, a soft stone that is found in the region. The blue paint is made from indigo leaves found in the minority areas. Both of these paints must be soaked in an earthenware pot for a couple of years and strained of all impurities.

Yellow paint usually comes from the sophora tree whose flowers are as small as rice kernels. The flowers are roasted in a pan until they turn brownish-yellow. When water is added and the mixture is boiled, the yellow color appears. The liquid is filtered and the pulp thrown away. The violet color comes from the mong toi fruit. Black paint comes from the bamboo tree. When the bamboo trees shed their leaves, they are burned to a cinder, then sprinkled with water and put in a glazed clay jar half filled with water. After a year or more, the water is strained and the black ink is ready for use after being mixed with glutinous rice glue.

Grinding glutinous rice into a fine powder and mixing it with water makes the rice glue. As the rice powder settles to the bottom, the clear water is skimmed off every day, to prevent the contents from fermenting.

The stories Each print tells a story of historical significance. The prints are used to carry on the cultural history of Vietnam, passed on at the welcoming of each Lunar New Year to younger generations through storytelling. The themes of happiness, good luck, fertility, good fortune and prosperity are common. They celebrate the optimism for the coming New Year.

Every year, when Tet comes closer the village’s people are busy producing Tet prints, transporting them to Hanoi for sale to wholesalers who distribute them all over the country, keeping the tradition alive. Dong Ho paintings are still something that can not lack in Vietnam’s Tet. And many foreigners like these paintings and often buy them as souvenirs for their

Vietnam Culture

Các tin khác

Công nghệ AI của hiện tại và tương lai

16-05-2023

Công nghệ AI (Artificial Intelligence) hiện đang là công nghệ được quan tâm phát triển và ứng dụng bậc nhất hiện nay, được ứng dụng trong nhiều lĩnh vực như nhận dạng khuôn mặt, xử lý giọng nói, kỹ thuật ước tính đám đông … đến các hệ thống an ninh, bảo mật, hay hệ ...

Xem thêm

Các thông số dinh dưỡng cho người Bệnh Tiểu Đường

24-02-2016

Ăn Uống và Tập Thể DụcĂn uống một cách khoa học, thường xuyên tập thể dục và theo dõi cân nặng là những biện pháp quan trọng trong việc kiểm soát bệnh tiểu đường. Kiểm soát được cân nặng và ăn uống đúng cách sẽ giúp quí vị kiểm soát được lượng mỡ trong máu ...

Xem thêm

Hội thảo tương tác: Chọn nghề và hành nghề - con đường ngắn nhất dẫn đến thành công

26-02-2016

Đây là buổi hội thảo hữu ích dành cho đối tượng sinh viên, học sinh… đang đứng trước ngưỡng cửa lựa chọn công việc và ngành nghề phù hợp với năng lực của bản thân. Qua những chia sẻ của các chuyên gia cũng như trải nghiệm những tương tác thực tế, hội thảo chắc ...

Xem thêm

Cách điều trị mụn đầu đen hiệu quả từ tự nhiên tại nhà

12-09-2015

Mụn đầu đen là hiện tượng phổ biến ở nhiều người, nhất là đối với các bạn trẻ ở lứa tuổi dậy thì. Cùng với mụn trứng cá, đây là mối bận tâm chính vì có ảnh hưởng tới cuộc sống, tâm lý của người bệnh. Do đó, việc tìm ra cách trị mụn đầu đen hiệu ...

Xem thêm

Vietnam's start-up queen

04-05-2018

Thuy Truong, a young Vietnamese entrepreneur, is in a cafe in central Ho Chi Minh City pondering work-life-balance.

Xem thêm

Mười điều cần biết về Rượu Vang

20-06-2015

Thức uống có men quyến rũ này ngày càng trở nên quen thuộc trong bữa ăn gia đình cũng như trên những bàn tiệc sang trọng. Thế nhưng, không phải ai cũng biết rõ về chúng. Dưới đây là 10 câu hỏi mà nhiều người vẫn thường băn khoăn về loại thức uống bổ dưỡng này (bổ ...

Xem thêm

Danh mục liên quan

An Cung Hoàn Hàn Quốc (Hộp Đỏ Tổ Kén)

Liên Hệ

Kết nối với chúng tôi

Facebook