HANDICRAFT VILLAGES 1 DAY TRIP

HANDICRAFT VILLAGES 1 DAY TRIP: Bat Trang, Dong Ho, Dong Ky

This day trip is designed to show you centuries of handicraft works of Vietnamese villages and more about the wet rice culture & Buddhism affect life. To make things more interesting, it provides you a short break out of Hanoi, fresh air, tranquil scenery of villages admit rice-paddy fields. If you have limited time, we also organize the trip in half day. Please ask our staff to make another itinerary for you, all is your satisfaction
08h00: Our car and guide come to pick up you at your hotel, it take you about 45 minutes going along the Red River to reach Bat Trang pottery village. You will walk around the village, visit families that have the workshop of making the pottery. See how the villagers find the mud, how to make the potteries and draw on them...You also can do pottery for yourself for souvenir.

09h00: visit the pottery market beside the river where you will see numourous kind of pottery products in many beautiful colours.

10h30: car take you throught the rice field to get to " Dong Ho" painting village. Here, you will find the special paints made by the artists.

You will know about the way they make the paper, the way the paint and also talk with the old painters.

11h30: have lunch in the restaurant.

13h00: visit the Capentry village - Dong Ky village. This is the most famous carpentry village in Vietnam. They make many beautiful products with carving nice pictures on them. You can buy some small products for souvenirs here.
Bat Trang pottery village

Situated on the left bank of the Red River, about 10km away from the center of Hanoi is the pottery village of Bat Trang. Bat Trang village, the most ancient and famous pottery village of Vietnam

, continues to work today and is constantly developing.

It is said that, the village took its first name from Bach Tho guild (a guild of Kaolin potters) and then it became Bat Trang guild (a guild of bowls and kilns).

Bat Trang pottery market

According to the legend, pottery production began in Bat Trang in the Ly Dynasty. Previous to this the villagers remember that their native village was in Bo Bat (or Bach Bat), in Yen Mo district, Ninh Binh province. What happened was that some people from Bo Bat village took a boat trip on the Red River to trade. When they arrived at the nearby capital of Thang Long, they found some waste but fertile land and stayed there for a night. That night, one of them had a dream of being invited by Neptune to visit the water palace. Understanding the poor circumstances of the man, Neptune sent some workers to build him a splendid house of clay. Long afterwards, also in his dream, his children used to eat the clay, but the wall never collapsed. This man told his dream to the group, who considering it to be a good omen, decided to settle on this land and establish a new village.

Bat Trang pottery has been distributed to every region of Vietnam and even to foreign countries, it is valued as typical pottery of Vietnam and has become well-known nationally and internationally. There are various kinds of pottery, for example jade enamel (under the Ly-Tran Dynasties), brown flower or brown enamel (under the late Tran to early Le Dynasties), cracked enamel (under the late Le Dynasty) and royal blue enameled items (under the late Le to Nguyen Dynasties). It is known that all these valuable potteries were produced in Bat Trang, except for the brown enameled pottery which was produced mainly in the Tho Ha pottery village (Ha Bac province).

Over the centuries, Bat Trang pottery has maintained a high quality and has produced mostly items for worship, such as lamps, incense burners and vases. Gradually, with market demand, house utensils appeared, mostly bowls, dishes and vases. Nowadays, Bat Trang produces many different types and designs of items, including decorative items, such as hanging dishes, vases, toy animals and reproduction statues using sophisticated techniques and technology. The Bat Trang art and craft of pottery gives us astonishing admiration for the talent of the village’s artists, they have created, from clay and fire, jade enamel for life.

Source: Vietnamimpression

Dong Ho painting village
Dong Ho Painting or Vietnamese woodblock prints (Vietnamese: Tranh Đông Hồ) refers to a distinct Vietnamese folk art originating in Dong Ho Village, Song Ho Commune, Thuan Thanh district of Bac Ninh Province (north of Hanoi). It is one of the most popular Vietnamese folk arts. Dong Ho folk painting is very famous because Dong ho is the only village where people know to make the "Dzo" painting with completely natural materials. The printing paper is made of bark of a tree called "Dzo." The background paper is originally white. People use natural materials to change the colors of the papers which are usually orange, pink, yellow, purple,.. Colors of the painting are refined from various kinds of tree leaves, that people can easily find in Vietnam. Particular, the red color is taken from earth of hills and mountains; the black color is from coal of burned bamboo's leaves; the glitter white color is made of sea shells; The original point of Dong Ho folk painting is the durability of colors. The painting is covered by a layer of sticky rice paste (called "ho nep") 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.

Paintings here vary from decoration paintings for Tết to worship painting. Dong Ho painting is considered one of Vietnam's cultural symbols as it has been sustained for centuries. Subjects depicted in these paintings are usually scenes of ordinary life, landscapes in Vietnam, seasons of the year, prosperity symbols, etc.

The prints in Dong Ho are made with local wood and paper. The paint is also made from local organic materials and is applied to wood and pressed on paper. The process is repeated with different colors.