Hue: Thanh Tien village and paper flower craft

(Cinet)- Thanh Tien paper flower village is famous for its traditional craft of making paper flowers that has gone on for about four hundred years. Artisan innovates and revives centuries old traditional vocation of making paper lotuses in a craft village in Thua Thien-Hue Province.

Thanh Tien village is in Phu Mau commune, Phu Vang district, Hue city. This villages situate in a special location, on the bank of Perfume river’s downstream. Thanh Tien village borders Mau Tai hamlet on the North, The Vinh village on the South, Vong Trì village on the East, Perfume river on the West-East.

Thanh Tien Village is located on the Huong River about 5km downstream from Hue (Thua Thien – Hue Province) and opposite the ancient town of Bao Vinh.

Currently, in Thanh Tiên village, there are only a few households make paper flower. Because the needs of the people of Hue of paper flower are less, so the paper flower can’t be sold. Youth in the village looks for the job in Hue city, only middle-aged and older people trying to make paper flowers to maintain and to serve tourists visiting the village every day. Secret of flower paper is focused on the dyeing so that the paper retains lasting color. Artisans don’t use the chemical industry; they use saps and leaves to make traditional style dye.

Paper flowers, including chrysanthemums, roses, orchids, apricots and gerbera are mainly used to decorate altars to worship the Buddha, the Kitchen God, the God of Land and ancestors, and as offering in rituals, especially during the Tet (Lunar New Year Festival)

Every year, around mid-October, after sowing rice for the winter-spring crop, the villagers begin to make paper flowers, and in mid-lunar December, flowers of diverse colours are seen in all houses.

The process of making flowers is a year-long endeavour that includes harvesting and drying the bamboo to be later split, dyed and polished, after which it is stored, along with the paper, in houses that are resistant to termites and humidity.

Thanh Tien paper flowers are diverse in colour and types, such as orchids, apricots, chrysanthemums, roses, gerberas, dahlias and many more. The production process includes a number of steps. Once the artisan decides on the colour, he or she stacks several sheets of paper together then chisels out the shape of the petals. This way the petal shape is uniform. Next the petals are formed into flower blossoms and glued to bamboo branches. Each branch will have 9 or 10 flowers because the locals say these are auspicious numbers. A single flower tree can have anywhere from 300 to 500 branches and as spring rolls around it is not unusual to see a flower vendor parading along the street with a huge tree flung over his shoulder.

Making paper lotus is a painstaking job. Lotus petals are made from painting paper, and lotus stems from dry rattan plants. To colour the lotus petals is the most difficult process because it requires the petals having colours to be changed from rose to pink, then white. Pink lotuses represent supreme power, white for purity and violet for the traditional beauty of Hue, but all manifesting the beauty of the land and people of Hue, especially the talent of Thanh Tien artisans.

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