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| Installation
art:
Making conical hats in traditional villages provides only
a meagre income for farmers. — VNS Photos Tien Dat |
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| Utilitarian
chic: The
non’s thin layers of palm leaves protect farmers
from the burning sun. |
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Lyrical
hats with a distinct voice
by
Ngo Thu Hue
What started out
as something to do for peasants between the rice harvests has become a
symbol of the romantic city of Hue, and the key to one village’s
economy.
The people of Tay
Ho village, on the banks of the Nhu Y River outside Hue, recall that Bui
Quang Bac was the first to make non bai tho (poetry hats) back in
the 1660s.
These look like
the conical hats available throughout the country but when held up to
the light, silhouettes of verse can be seen.
The villagers say
Bac adored poems which captured the soul and beauty of Hue and so stuck
the verses on the inside of non so he would always be able to
read them.
His idea has been
built on by subsequent crafts-people so now the hats include poems as
well as pictures of Hue landmarks such as Linh Mu Pagoda and Trang Tien
Bridge.
Centuries
of toil
The village’s non
tradition began when farmers were ruled by a feudal system which
forced them to look for other ways to make extra money.
During the wars
for the country’s independence, the village’s women diligently kept
their non making skills alive while the men went to the front.
People still
believe that the village’s non stand out from others available
because of the women’s skill and pride in their craft.
When the men
returned from war, the production of the hats became segregated so men
now tend to make the hat frames and prepare the materials while the
women undertake the more difficult tasks of ironing and polishing the
leaf and ensuring the tautness of the finished product.
Tay Ho hats are
known for their glossiness as well as the ring threaded around the top
which is said to make them stronger than other non.
Standing
out
Girls from the
village have continued making non when they marry and move away,
ensuring the tradition has been spread throughout the central province
of Thua Thien Hue.
But Tay Ho still
has a stranglehold over the market.
Only seven of the
village’s 307 households don’t make the hats and the craftspeople
manage to send tens of thousands of non to markets every month.
Selling for an
average VND5,000 to VND7,000, the Tay Ho non have managed to hold
their own against the increasing competition from other villages.
It’s not a
particularly profitable craft though, most people only earn VND10,000 a
day for their labours. But for Tay Ho villagers the process of
transforming the coconut leaves has taken root in their daily lives.
Most of the
residents spend the evenings sitting with their family and crafting the
hats.
Truong Thi Be, 80,
who has been involved in the business for as long as she can remember,
said the village’s hat makers are able to put a bit of their soul into
their creations, ensuring they are more desirable than the competition.
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| Poetic
seal: While
young women donning ao dai and a non hat
have become increasingly hard to find in big cities
nowadays, they can be spotted in Hue, Viet Nam’s non
capital. — VNS Photo Nguyen Phuc Son |
|
Non
are popular with local and foreign tourists who head to the city’s
central Dong Ba market to bargain with the many sellers for their own
slice of Hue.
Young women in the
area grow up with a love of the hats and go to all lengths to find the
trappings which will make theirs more noticeable. It is common for them
to have hats made up incorporating their favourite verse and pictures.
Non have
become so entrenched as a symbol of Hue that it is now impossible for
Vietnamese people to imagine the city without thinking about women in
their ao dai and the ever present head covering. — VNS |
