Visit Dong Giao Wood Carving Village

Legend has it that wood carving in Dong Giao has existed for over 300 years. In the past, Dong Giao workers were famous for their worship products such as altars, rituals, diaphragms, couplets, etc. These products were very popular with people in neighboring provinces. In addition, the talented hands of Dong Giao workers are also imprinted in many famous architectural works all over the country. Therefore, up to now, the Dong Giao people are still proud when it comes to the merits of the talented craftsmen in their hometown in building the ancient Hue Citadel.

In the past, Dong Giao workers rarely worked from home, partly due to low capital, partly depending on user requirements. As a rule, every year in the summer of January, after the village festival is over, the master workers go to look for work, get a job, sometimes guests come to the village to look for workers. With a firm grasp of the job, the whole worker returned to the village to find a friend. Among the workers, you must have a master craftsman, proficient in each type of work, capable of drawing samples and commanding sub-workers. Elaborate and meticulous carving work, small things also take months, big jobs take years, workers have to live at work.

The August Revolution was successful, followed by thirty years of fierce war, worshiping objects, decorative carvings were only museum artifacts, no one bought them and most of them were destroyed. Dong Giao carvers are unemployed, most of them go to work in the fields, a few switch to making common cabinets, tables and chairs. Young people are not interested in carving, they admire the talent of their fathers, but still consider it a dead profession. Old workers have no land to use martial arts, sometimes touching the cabinet to practice their skills, whether it can be sold or not. Day after day, the class of skilled workers disappears, the profession disappears, and is in danger of being lost, and the country is completely liberated.

The material life is not high, but many families have enough food to buy household items that are not only practical but also have decorative functions, arouse cultural and traditional lifestyles. Coffee cabinets, German cabinets, flat cabinets, skewed cabinets…any style is out of date for a year or two. Folk, especially in the countryside, return to the tea cabinet – the van Tien cabinet, the classic cabinet of the nation. The purchasing power of this item increased at an unprecedented rate in history. Making tea cabinets is not the main occupation of Dong Giao, but driven by social needs, Dong Giao carving craft revived and revived rapidly. From carving worship objects quickly changed to carving tea cabinets. In just eight years, from 4-5 elderly artisans have trained a large team of carvers with many promising young carvers.

Up to 1983, the village had 97% of households engaged in carpentry with over 400 male, female, old and young workers. Coming to Dong Giao, many people are surprised to see the soft, uneven patterned wardrobes created by the youth class. Many 9-10 year olds have successfully touched complex carvings. More specifically, there are young women who carve, the pedestal is no less than skilled workers and mature cabinetry – the most complicated job that determines the quality of the product. This is a new feature of carving, a new feature of Dong Giao. In the past, women followed the workers’ unions to cook rice and do light work, but today, they participate in most of the stages of the carving profession. In the past, everything depended on the master, now there are bosses who order and purchase export goods. If there are men who start sculpting very early from the age of 5 or 6, the women already know how to hold a guy, hold a chisel, eyes are familiar with each “pattern of Buddha”. Wood carving is mainly done by hand, so in addition to talent, workers must be well trained through schools or spend a long time working in craft villages to be able to create sophisticated products. satisfied customers. The village’s sculpting profession is passed from father to son from generation to generation. For families that do not do carpentry, when a woman was young, she learned a trade and was tempered in large carpentry workshops. Every year, Dong Giao workers not only produce goods in their hometown, but also have hundreds of workers working in the centers of producing wooden handicrafts at enterprises in big cities as well as in craft villages. Dong Giao’s products have been present in almost all villages and cities in the country, becoming a cultural mark and an export item to many countries, favored by customers. Wood carving is mainly done by hand, so in addition to talent, workers must be well trained through schools or spend a long time working in craft villages to be able to create sophisticated products. satisfied customers. The village’s sculpting profession is passed from father to son from generation to generation. For families that do not do carpentry, when a woman was young, she learned a trade and was tempered in large carpentry workshops. Every year, Dong Giao workers do not only produce goods in their hometown, but also have hundreds of workers working in centers for the production of wooden handicrafts at enterprises in big cities as well as in craft villages. Dong Giao’s products have been present in almost all villages and cities in the country, becoming a cultural mark and an export item to many countries, favored by customers. Wood carving is mainly done by hand, so in addition to talent, workers must be well trained through schools or spend a long time working in craft villages to be able to create sophisticated products. satisfied customers. The village’s sculpting profession is passed from father to son from generation to generation. For families that do not do carpentry, when a woman was young, she learned a trade and was tempered in large carpentry workshops. Every year, Dong Giao workers do not only produce goods in their hometown, but also have hundreds of workers working in centers for the production of wooden handicrafts at enterprises in big cities as well as in craft villages. Dong Giao’s products have been present in almost all villages and cities in the country, becoming a cultural mark and an export item to many countries, favored by customers. Workers must be well-trained through schools or spend a long time working in craft villages to be able to create sophisticated products that satisfy customers. The village’s sculpting profession is passed from father to son from generation to generation. For families that do not do carpentry, when a woman was young, she learned a trade and was tempered in large carpentry workshops. Every year, Dong Giao workers do not only produce goods in their hometown, but also have hundreds of workers working in centers for the production of wooden handicrafts at enterprises in big cities as well as in craft villages. Dong Giao’s products have been present in almost all villages and cities in the country, becoming a cultural mark and an export item to many countries, favored by customers. Workers must be well-trained through schools or spend a long time working in craft villages to be able to create sophisticated products that satisfy customers. The village’s sculpting profession is passed from father to son from generation to generation. For families that do not do carpentry, when a woman was young, she learned a trade and was tempered in large carpentry workshops. Every year, Dong Giao workers do not only produce goods in their hometown, but also have hundreds of workers working in centers for the production of wooden handicrafts at enterprises in big cities as well as in craft villages. Dong Giao’s products have been present in almost all villages and cities in the country, becoming a cultural mark and an export item to many countries, favored by customers.

Wood used for carving includes many types, depending on the item, choose the appropriate wood. The general requirement is that the wood must be strong, with little warping, cracking, no termites, hard to termites, smooth, easy to touch and polish. After selecting wood, proceed, sawing, cutting, hewn, planing … to shape it properly. Draw the pattern on the paper, print it on the wood and start carving. Many skilled craftsmen memorize the topics, just need to sketch the main strokes, post the opposites, and the right size can be touched anywhere. Carved objects are not always shown on a log, usually many details must be assembled by means of tenons. To ensure that the details are firmly linked together, paint must be primed into the mortise holes or bamboo and copper nails. The disparate details are often carved and covered with mortise and paint to save wood, overcome small wood types and create favorable conditions for expression. The topics carved on some worshiping objects are usually the four spirits: Long, ly, turtle, phoenix; the four quarters: Pine, apricot, chrysanthemum, bamboo, or extracts from Buddhist scriptures or ancient stories. The motifs must be posted symmetrically.

Dong Giao workers have ingenuity, intelligence with industrious nature, so over time, they have constantly created, improved designs, and improved their skills. Especially in the current market mechanism, they know how to apply science and technology to production to create extremely diverse wood carving products. If in the past were household items (tables and chairs, beds, cabinets…) and worship items (throne, incense, bowl, etc.), now the craftsman also manufactures interior art products. Southern style (church cabinet, sofa, ashtray, decorative seeds of all kinds…). Especially those exported to countries: Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, China… must be shown more elaborately and more diversely according to customer requirements. Up to now, in Ho Chi Minh City alone,

Since 1993 in Dong Giao, the first commercial service establishment of Mr. Vu Xuan Cuu’s family has been established. Although “thousands of difficult beginnings”, it paved the way for the new development of Dong Giao. For the domestic market, Dong Giao’s products are consumed in all 3 regions. The northern market in the past seemed to be unable to adapt to this product, but now due to the needs of life, Dong Giao products have affirmed themselves right in their homeland. If we go along Route 38 from Sat to Bac Ninh, we will encounter many production facilities that are also the place to introduce and sell Dong Giao products. This development is not a coincidence, but it also carries the tradition of a craft village in close relationship with the traditional villages of Bac Ninh since ancient times.

 With elaborate and meticulous carving work, with talented hands of craftsmen, Dong Giao wood carving village in the near future will rise high, fly far, and blend in with the renewal flow of the country.