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Craft village · Mây tre cói đan · Rattan, bamboo & sedge

Phú Vinh

Làng mây tre đan Phú Vinh — the weaving village west of the city

Thirty kilometres west of Hà Nội, where the delta begins to lift towards the hills, Phú Vinh has woven rattan and bamboo for four hundred years. Walk its lanes on a dry morning and the courtyards are pale with split cane drying on racks; in every open doorway somebody is sitting at a frame.

Wide view of a Phú Vinh courtyard with split rattan cane drying on bamboo racks in low sun, whitewashed walls, a weaver seated in a doorway, rattan & bamboo weaving village, Red River Delta, Vietnam
Wide view of a Phú Vinh courtyard with split rattan cane drying on bamboo racks in low sun, whitewashed walls, a weaver seated in a doorway, rattan & bamboo weaving village, Red River Delta, Vietnam

“The pattern is in my hands long before it is in my head.”

Thirty kilometres west of Hà Nội, where the delta begins to lift towards the hills, Phú Vinh has woven rattan and bamboo for four hundred years. Walk its lanes on a dry morning and the courtyards are pale with split cane drying on racks; in every open doorway somebody is sitting at a frame.

Craft
Rattan & bamboo weavingMây tre đan
Where
Chương Mỹ, Hà Nội30 km from Hà Nội
Practised since
c. 400 yearsEvery household weaves
Material
Rattan & bambooSplit by hand, dried in the sun
On LangSoul
2 artisans5 works

01 — The story

Four hundred years, and the pattern of the roofs

In Phú Vinh nobody learned to weave. They grew up inside it, the way other children grow up inside a language.

Archive black-and-white photograph from the mid-twentieth century, faded and grainy: weaving at the doorway in Phú Vinh, rattan & bamboo weaving, villagers in simple work clothes, old brick and timber

In Phú Vinh nobody learned to weave. They grew up inside it, the way other children grow up inside a language.

The village sits where rattan once grew wild along the streams that run down from the limestone hills. The first weavers made baskets and fish traps for the markets of Hà Đông; by the eighteenth century their fine, tight work was travelling to the court, and the name of the village was enough to sell a piece.

What the court bought, and what we carry now, is a particular lightness. Phú Vinh cane is split finer than anywhere else in the delta, soaked, scraped and dried until it bends without memory. The patterns — rain, fish-scale, mat — are old, and each family holds a few of its own. Today the village also makes for export in quantity, but a handful of households still split by hand and weave the fine work. These are the makers we return to.

Hands splitting a length of rattan cane with a small knife, strands peeling pale, in a Phú Vinh courtyard, split rattan cane drying on bamboo racks, pale straw and honey tones, whitewashed wall, dappled sun
Split cane drying on a bamboo rack, pale strands against a whitewashed wall, in a Phú Vinh courtyard, split rattan cane drying on bamboo racks, pale straw and honey tones, whitewashed wall, dappled sun

02 — The technique

What makes Phú Vinh weaving

The quality is decided long before the weaving starts, in how the cane is split and dried.

I

Split by hand

Rattan is split along its length with a knife, not a machine, into strands a millimetre wide. The hand follows the fibre; a machine cuts across it.

II

Dried, not bleached

Cane is dried in the courtyard sun for days and left its natural honey colour. The pale bleached cane of the export trade is not what we carry.

III

Patterns with names

Rain, fish-scale, mat, lotus: each pattern has a name, a rhythm and a family that is known for it.

IV

Tight enough to hold water

The finest Phú Vinh baskets were made to carry rice from the field; the weave is so close that a new basket will hold water for a minute.

Words you will meet

Mây

Rattan, the climbing palm whose cane is split for weaving.

Tre

Bamboo, used for the frame and the heavier weaves.

Cói

Sedge, the marsh grass woven into mats further south in the delta.

Đan

To weave, to plait — the verb the village lives by.

03 — The artisans of Phú Vinh

Two workshops we return to

All artisans
Portrait of Nguyễn Thị Lan, rattan weaver in her fifties, seated in a sunlit doorway in Phú Vinh with a half-woven basket in her lap, fourth generation of the family trade

Nguyễn Thị Lan

Rattan weaver · Fourth generation

“My grandmother wove at this same doorway. The pattern is in my hands long before it is in my head.”
Portrait of Trần Thị Mai, rattan weaver in her sixties, at a weaving frame in a Phú Vinh courtyard, cane across her knees, calm direct gaze, third generation of the family trade

Trần Thị Mai

Rattan weaver · Third generation

“Rain pattern is counted, not seen. If you look, you lose the count.”
All artisans

04 — Works from Phú Vinh

Five works from the village

All rattan, bamboo & sedge works
Lidded vessel, rain pattern: A tall lidded rattan vessel in the diagonal "rain" weave, hand-split cane with a bamboo rim, natural unbleached finish, its lid resting beside it, in a Phú Vinh courtyard, split rattan cane drying on bamboo racks, pale straw and honey tones, whitewashed wall, dappled sun, by Trần Thị Mai

Lidded vessel, rain pattern

Trần Thị Mai

$340
Market basket, open weave: An open-weave rattan market basket with a bent bamboo handle, honey-coloured cane, standing in a sunlit doorway, in a Phú Vinh courtyard, split rattan cane drying on bamboo racks, pale straw and honey tones, whitewashed wall, dappled sun, by Nguyễn Thị Lan

Market basket, open weave

Nguyễn Thị Lan

$160
Set of three nesting trays, mat weave: Three nesting rattan trays in a tight mat weave with bamboo rims, stacked and slightly fanned, pale cane, on a courtyard table, in a Phú Vinh courtyard, split rattan cane drying on bamboo racks, pale straw and honey tones, whitewashed wall, dappled sun, by Nguyễn Thị Lan

Set of three nesting trays, mat weave

Nguyễn Thị Lan

$220
Lantern, open weave: A hexagonal open-weave rattan lantern on a bamboo frame, lit from inside at dusk, casting a lattice of warm light on a courtyard wall, in a Phú Vinh courtyard, split rattan cane drying on bamboo racks, pale straw and honey tones, whitewashed wall, dappled sun, by Trần Thị Mai

Lantern, open weave

Trần Thị Mai

$190
All rattan, bamboo & sedge works

05 — Visiting

Come and sit at a frame

We take small groups to Phú Vinh most months: a morning in two weaving households, lunch in the courtyard, and an afternoon with a frame of your own. Collectors who have acquired a work from the village visit as our guests.

From Hà Nội
About an hour by car
Best season
November to April, when the cane is drying
Group size
Six people at most
Ask about a visit Ask about a visit

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