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Known as a brocade weaving village with a tradition from a very long time, Lung Tam Village is an extremely worthwhile place to visit when you come to travel in Ha Giang. Brocade products are made by the skillful and meticulous hands of the people here, a typical cultural feature of the village.
Fiber stripping to create thinness and softness from flax @quangninhonline
Established in 2001, Hop Tien Brocade Weaving Village is a village of the Hmong people, currently has about 2500 people with 150 households. The profession of beeswax painting and indigo dyeing are also famous professions in Lung Tam, but the linen weaving from the yarns is always more special, because it is in the woven linen sheets that there have also painting patterns with beeswax or dyeing the indigo of the fabrics.
Stepping into the weaving village, you will clearly feel the traditional culture of the Hmong people, and you can also experience a few stages in the process of making a linen cloth for yourself. Let’s discover with Asia King Travel!
The village is located in Hop Tien Village, Lung Tam Commune, Quan Ba District, Ha Giang. It is only about 50km from the center of Ha Giang City and very close to Quan Ba twin mountains.
The traditional linen making profession has been passed down through many generations in Ha Giang @collected
Although it is still in an area covered by high mountains, the route to get here is highly accessible. You just need to follow the Vietnam National Highway 4C without having to conquer any difficult, rugged roads.
From Ha Giang City to the brocade weaving village, you can choose one of the following 2 routes:
Route 1: Ha Giang City - Nguyen Trai Street - National Highway 4C - Coc Tieng - Bac Sum Slope - Quan Ba Gate of Heaven - Quan Ba Twin Mountains - Can Billion - Lung Tam Valley - Road 181 - Brocade Village.
Route 2: Ha Giang City - Nguyen Trai Street - National Highway 4C - Thuan Hoa Bridge - Ma Pi Leng Pass - Thuan Hoa Market - A Boong Waterfall - Road 181 - Brocade Village.
Since the road to get here is quite convenient, you can travel by motorbike or private car. You can also rent a motorbike to get around. Riding a motorbike, you can easily stop at points along the road to enjoy the scenery and check-in.
Put on the beauty of traditional costumes and the quality of fabrics by trying on traditional Hmong costumes with many vibrant colors, that stand out against the deep green background of the mountains and forests.
Traditional costumes with many colorful colors are typical of the Hmong people @Hagiangtour
An even more important activity is to learn about the process by which people here make traditional linen. These are extremely complex stages and require a lot of meticulousness and patience. Not only that, for some stages, it also requires the person who makes the clothes to be healthy and flexible.
According to the custom of the Hmong people, when every woman reaches adulthood will have a plot of land to plant flax trees. After more than 2 months, it can be harvested to weave into yarn.
The flax yarns after reaching the thinning standard will be put into the weaving stage into a cloth @Salm
When the flax tree reaches the harvest level, the people will pluck all the leaves and bring the stem back to soak with water, pull it into small fibers, then roll it into a frame and spin it until it softens, final step is to boil or steam.
Next is the weaving of yarn into fabric. This is a stage that requires high technical factors and ingenuity. They weave fabric with a homemade loom with the upper part of the frame tied to a pole or wall, the belt worn on the weaver's back. After a meticulous and patient weaving process, the linen sheet is formed.
Older women with many years of experience are the main source of labor in things that require meticulousness and ingenuity @Salm
Then, to make the cloth bath white, soft, and shiny, they will wash it several times, and then rub it vigorously with boulders or logs. To create the color, they all use natural colors taken from the leaves, forest trees, bark, and roots of some plants without using any chemicals.
Which, the technique of dyeing with indigo leaves is highly appreciated, there is no place to compare. The fabric will be soaked in the indigo mixture for about 1 hour and then dried in the sun, this process is repeated many times until the fabric has a beautiful and shiny color. The time for the dyeing stage for the fabric takes about 2 months. That's why the color of the fabric is durable over time.
100% hand-painted decorative brushstrokes @Salm
The last stage is to decorate the patterns for the fabric. People use a lot of different motifs to decorate the fabric, the most common are circles, triangles, squares, and flowers,... The motifs are embroidered by people by hand with needles or beeswax. Finally, they use beeswax to draw more beautiful patterns for the white fabrics.
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When visiting and exploring the weaving village, you can not only learn about weaving techniques, and see the handmade products here, but also participate in the weaving process. You will be able to sit and embroider and weave fabrics like a local.
Weaving experience with attentive guidance from locals @quangninhonline
You will be guided in detail at each stage to try the experience. Certainly, you will feel very interested and understand more about the seemingly easy, but so hard to do.
If you want to buy some of these quality handmade products, check out the many shops with booths displaying brocade products made by the locals. There are various items such as stuffed animals, coasters, jewelry, hats, fabrics, clothes, rugs,... with many different designs. The price will fluctuate from a few tens to several million VND.
Wallets are handmade to every detail @hagiangtour
The quality of products in the textile village is also exported to foreign markets, or served by national airlines, because of its beauty, uniqueness and goodness, environmental friendliness, and user health.
Hmong’s tradition of making linen fabrics will have more and more potential to develop because of the values that this product and textile industry brings to society, creating a special feature compared to fabrics that are only produced by technology and chemistry today. This will be an extremely interesting experience if you love delicate handmade products that contain a lot of art from the skillful hands of local artisans.
If you are interested in this place, please contact Asia King Travel for further advice as well as to schedule your sightseeing trip!
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