Making clay horses for worshiping

Making clay horses for worshiping

Tien Sa

Huynh Tram holds a clay horse dried in the yard of his residence

Visiting Tram’s house, we are impressed by thousands of clay horses placed on the ground for drying.

Tram, 65, says he and his family have been making clay horses for the past 30 years. People put horses on the altar, as they believe that those horses will help their loved ones who died have a means to travel in the other world.

The house of Tram appears as a bustling workshop with many people being busy with work, from kneading different parts of the horse from clay to drying the horses to burning them and painting them.

Two clay horses are placed on the altar at a temple in Quang Nam Province

“The very first step is buying good clay, costing VND1 million (US$44) per cubic meter. Then, we mix the clay with water to create a sticky mixture before rolling it into thin layers with a thickness of around one centimeter. After that, we put those thin pieces of clay into molds to create the body of the horse, its four legs and its tail, and then attach all pieces together using clay to create a complete horse.”

Next, the horse will be dried for one day and burned for 24 hours before

Two people at Tram’s workshop paint clay horses - PHOTOS: TIEN SA

they are painted in red or white and decorated.

On normal days, Tram’s workshop produces around 50 clay horses. Yet output is higher during the final months of year owing to higher demand.

Currently, Tram sells clay horses at VND25,000 (US$1.11) and VND35,000 per unit depending on sizes.

On September 9 making clay horses in Quang Nam is not popular. Tram’s family is still attached to the job because manually made clay horses in Quang Nam cannot compete with those produced at large workshops in HCMC.

However, Tram says most Quang Nam residents prefer those clay horses made in their hometown.

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