Kim Bồng

Kim Bồng is on Cẩm Kim island, across the Thu Bồn river from Hội An’s old town. Its carpenters are recorded from around the fifteenth century, and as Hội An grew into a trading port they built its houses, assembly halls and temples, and the boats that worked its harbour and river. Their skill was in demand elsewhere too, and Kim Bồng carpenters are said to have worked on buildings in the capital at Huế. The carved beams, doors and timber frames of the old town are largely their work.

The village still does both of its trades. Workshops build and repair timber houses, often for restoration of heritage buildings, and carve doors, panels and furniture. Down by the river, boatwrights build wooden boats on the bank in the traditional way, shaping the hull plank by plank. There is also a stream of smaller carved pieces made for visitors, of varying quality. The boatyards are the clearest link to the past: the methods are the same that built the river craft of the old port.

In good Kim Bồng work the joints matter more than the carving. A traditional frame is held together with mortise and tenon and wooden pegs, not nails or glue, and it can be taken apart and rebuilt. In carving, look for depth and clean undercutting, so that leaves and figures stand free of the ground. Jackfruit wood should show its warm yellow-orange colour mellowing to brown.