Unique Craftsmanship of Nứa Dồn – Đỗ Xuyên Craft Village, Thanh Ba

December 9, 2022 | Craft Village

The land of Thanh Ba has long been renowned for its lush palm forests, verdant tea hills, and fertile alluvial plains, featuring a rich and beautiful natural landscape. With enduring traditional cultural values rooted in the nation-building and preservation of heritage, Thanh Ba has the potential for developing eco-tourism, spiritual tourism, and craft village tourism.

Distinctive Nứa Dồn Products – Đỗ Xuyên Craft Village, Thanh Ba

Craft village tourism has become an engaging community-oriented form of experiential tourism due to its dynamic, diverse, and rich nature. This form of tourism encapsulates and conveys the labor and developmental aspects of the craft village throughout different historical periods. A craft village is not only a place that produces unique, exquisite, and remarkable handicrafts but also serves as a repository for the artistic essence, customs, and habits of the inhabitants of that craft village. Visitors to the craft village can admire the intricate products, experience the production process, and even participate in creating these outstanding handicrafts.

Located in the southern part of Thanh Ba district, the traditional craft village of Đỗ Xuyên, formerly known as the bamboo weaving village, has been preserved, maintained, and developed by the local people over the years. The craft village’s products are incredibly simple. Utilizing locally available natural materials, the residents of this area have ingeniously breathed life into creating practical handicraft products for daily life, enriching the lives of the locals and turning it into a significant handicraft in the region.

Craft of Bamboo Weaving and Nứa Dồn Over the Years

Alongside bamboo weaving, the craft of nứa dồn in Đỗ Xuyên is progressively developing, thanks to the investment from the Hon Ngọc Viễn Đông Co., Ltd. in Hanoi. The exquisite handmade art products made from nứa dồn in this village have reached markets in several European, American, and Asian countries. The products, including plates, bowls, vases, trays, and lacquered nứa dồn dishes, showcase a diverse range of designs, ensuring quality, with lacquered nứa dồn trays being a distinctive product. These handmade products, not only serving as household items with a rustic, countryside charm but also exuding a natural allure, possess high aesthetic value.

To complete a nứa dồn product for consumers, it involves multiple steps and requires concentration and meticulousness. The initial step involves selecting nứa materials, ensuring they are not too old or too young. After soaking them in water for a minimum of 6-8 months, they are lifted, processed through filtering, sorting, mixing, bending, and stacking nứa sticks together. The sticks are then left to dry before being smoothed, adorned with mother-of-pearl, shell inlays, coated with resin for strength, and painted five times to finish the product. Each step demands the skillful hands of the craftsperson, with the nứa dồn process being crucial, requiring high technical expertise and determining more than half of the product’s quality. In the past, completing a single product took 15 days, excluding time for drying and painting. While modern machinery has reduced production time, certain steps remain entirely manual, such as stacking the sticks and hand painting.

Showcasing Đỗ Xuyên Craft Village Products

With its distinctive and unique characteristics, combined with a love for the craft and creativity of the local people, Đỗ Xuyên’s products are not only recognized and loved by domestic tourists but are also exported to several Asian and European countries. These products are prominently displayed and introduced by Thanh Ba district in cultural festivals during the Hung King Temple Festival and annual fairs and exhibitions within and outside the province. Particularly, the craft village’s products have been officially recognized by the OCOP Council of Phú Thọ Province as meeting the 4-star standard, significantly contributing to the implementation of the OCOP program in Đỗ Xuyên commune and Thanh Ba district as a whole.