Dong Ho painting village – a place to preserve Vietnamese cultural identity

Bac Ninh is again famous for the traditional folk painting village of Dong Ho, which appeared in the sixteenth century. Despite experiencing many ups and downs in history, Dong Ho folk paintings are still handed down to this day and received much attention from many young people.

About Dong Ho village of Bac Ninh

Dong Ho painting village is also known as the Mai village, located next to the peaceful Duong River in Song Ho commune, Thuan Thanh district, Bac Ninh province . Today, Dong Ho is only a small village with more than 220 households, most of which are more involved in making paintings and wares than doing agriculture. This is a craft village that still retains the oldest way of making Dong Ho paintings in Kinh Bac land.

Enjoy the famous “Mouse Wedding”

Development history of Dong Ho painting village

The people here produced paintings by hand methods from the paper making process to the engravings from the sixteenth century. Dong Ho painting village flourished from the late eighteenth century to 1944, with the participation of 17 families in the village. Through the years of fierce French resistance, the country was severely devastated, the village of paintings burned down, and the painting profession was also interrupted. In 1967, when peace was restored in the North, also the time of national reunification, Dong Ho painting village was restored again.

The beauty of today’s picturesque village In the past, Dong Ho painting village used to have a busy painting market on December every year with 5 sessions on 6, 11, 16, 21, 26. Each fair sold thousands and millions of painting products. different to serve traders, retail customers, especially families who buy and make hanging paintings on Tet holiday, with the purpose of praying for flowers and riches for the new year. At the last market, the remaining paintings will be wrapped and carefully stored by the seller until next year’s painting season.The pictures are left of the old painting village With the integration trend, by 1990, the market for Dong Ho paintings was less and less. Painting was made but could not be sold, so people were no longer dedicated to the profession. Therefore, Dong Ho painting village was dissolved, many families gave up their jobs and switched to making products. Only a few artisan families are determined to follow and preserve the traditional profession. In March 2003, Dong Ho folk paintings were recognized as the National Intangible Cultural Heritage and included in the list of craft villages in urgent need of protection. Today, only a few families still keep the traditional painting profession

Unique point of Dong Ho painting village

Dong Ho paintings have 180 different types, divided into 5 main categories: paintings, congratulation paintings, historical paintings, living paintings and comics. Themes are inspired by the daily life of Dong Ho painting villageGood production is derived from traditional philosophies. Although somewhat simple, it is very close to daily life. From the characters in the legend or the story, the majestic beautiful scenes of the country, the beauty in everyday work to the structures, all artisans skillfully put into each picture, implying ideas. deep philosophical meaning. Moreover, each picture also depicts the workers’ thousand-year dream about a harmonious and prosperous life with a fair society. Dong Ho painting has significantly contributed to preserving the traditional culture of the nation and the spiritual life of the Vietnamese people.

Dong Ho folk paintings Bac Ninh has 180 different kinds of paintings In addition to the attractiveness and originality of the colors, the layout as well as the frame, the value of Dong Ho paintings lies in the color and the printing paper material. There are two types of printing paper: message paper. Scallop paper is produced from scallop shells – a type of sea shell with thin shells, then mixed with a paste and used a pine leaf brush to apply a layer over the do paper.  An elderly artisan painting on Do paper The paste used for painting is usually cooked diluted from non-glutinous rice flour or tapioca, while the paste is usually made from glutinous rice flour. Giayo is derived from the Do tree that grows in the forest. This tree has the same bark as the Eucalyptus tree. People will bring and crush the mortar into a fine powder and process it into Do paper, which is porous, soft, thin, tough, easy to absorb color and not smudged when printing. According to the sweep, natural scallops are white with sparkling small scallops, can be mixed with other colors or mixed with resin with glue during the paper making process.Shoes are extremely well crafted to achieve high quality

The villagers of Dong Ho painting village have used and refined natural materials to create traditional colors that can retain color for a long time. The blue color is made from copper rust, indigo from the leaves of the indigo tree in Lang Son, the crimson red from the bark of the Vang tree, the vermilion color from the mountains, the yellow from the Hoe flower or Sticky straw, black from the ash of the Xoan tree or the ash of the bamboo leaves,…. These are basic colors that don’t mix and up to a picture usually only uses up to 4 colors.

How to make pictures of Dong Ho painting village

The painting process goes through many stages, divided into two main stages: plank carving and painting printing. The work of composing pictures and plank carving takes a lot of time and effort, requiring the artist to choose themes, meanings, profound content, harmonious colors, tight and valuable layout. high art. This is an important stage in deciding the existence of an entire Dong Ho painting village , not just an individual. Artisans often use brush and grape ink to draw on Diep paper, then the craftsman will engrave and chisel according to the pattern. Each picture has many different variations, so a picture pattern can have 2 to 3 color distributions to create richness in the design.

The artist must be meticulous in every stroke There are two types of picture printing boards, which are stroke board and color printing board, usually made from wood or ink rope. Wood has multi-dimensional grain, which is both soft, chewy and easy to carve, making it easy for artisans to create thin, neat and sophisticated lines. The tool to engrave the plank is a set of ticks, also known as chisels, made of hard steel material. Each tick set consists of 30-40 pieces with many different sizes. Technical drying process When printing pictures, people will dip pine brooms into color pots to get color and then sweep evenly on the cover. Then, we will hold “shrink” the stamping board over and over again on the coated cover so that the color can be evenly absorbed on the surface of the board. Next, the technician will place the printing plate on the Do paper so that it is balanced, and then strongly stamp the printing board on the paper so that the colors on the printing board are evenly absorbed into the paper. When the colors are finished, they will be removed and exposed to dry in a cool place until dry, then print other colors in turn. Today, Dong Ho painting village produces paintings in many other and more modern ways. It is a painting that has been printed in advance, the artist only needs to distribute colors to achieve harmony and reason. However, each painting still retains its traditional beauty and inherent aesthetic value.And finished Dong Ho paintings

luhanhvietnam/Photo: Internet

Đăng bởi: Lê Thị Hải Yến