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Story & Photos TU YENG, LUONG HOAI, TRONG TINH
Raising silkworms and producing silk have a long history in Vietnam that continues into the present day.
Sericulture, or the cultivation of silkworms to produce silk, dates backs to ancient times in Vietnam. Silk villages more than a thousand years old are still in operation, emerging in an era when textile and garment production become important industries for both domestic use and export.
The ancient Vietnamese effectively employed materials such as silk, linen and satin as well as dyeing procedures using plants and herbs to make high-quality textiles. Later records of the Nguyen Dynasty in Kham dinh Dai Nam hoi dien su le (Imperially Approved Institutional Regulations of Dai Nam) and Dai Nam thuc luc (Veritable Records of Dai Nam), listed textiles as officially taxed goods. Typical silk weaving guilds included Gia Dinh, Bien Hoa, Dinh Tuong, An Giang and Khanh Hoa, while satin weaving guild in Thanh Oai (Hanoi) and the satin fabric weaving guild in La Khe (Hanoi) were also popular at that time.
By the first half of the 20th century, handwoven textiles were still popular in Vietnam, but its practitioners were facing heavy competition from industrially manufactured products.
Khoa Hoc (Science) Magazine (No. 114, February 21, 1936) described the traditional weaving craft in the Northern region of Vietnam as follows: “Vietnamese fabrics are narrow, only 0.40m wide. Though they do not appear as smooth and shiny as dowlas and brocade fabrics, they are very durable because of their simplicity.”
The article went on to describe how the emergence of machinery was bringing the handmade fabric craft to “the brink of crisis”. “If we are not careful, silk may follow in its footsteps,” the magazine warned. Author Léon Anglès, also known as the “quan Bac vat Nong” (an old-fashioned term denoting an agricultural engineer or expert), concluded that there were two main silkworm breeds in the South at that time: “The silkworm variety in the Mekong Delta has small cocoons that are easy to reel and can produce a lot of silk,” he said. “Many silk reelers in the North wanted to buy it, as it typically consumed fewer leaves than the larger cocoon counterpart found in Trung Lap (Gia Dinh).”
In the traditional weaving craft of Vietnam, the majority of steps are done manually, from growing mulberries, raising silkworms, spinning threads and weaving fabric to dyeing the final items. All of these processes make use of natural elements, which gives the fabric a rustic nature. At the same time, the final products are elaborate and show evidence of dedicated craftsmanship.
Besides spinning thread, the loom weaving process requires attention and high expertise to create the desired end product. In the traditional Vietnamese method, plain silk fabrics are common products, while fabrics with unique patterns are used to make the distinctive costumes of each ethnic community.
Dyeing colors, weaving hues
In the fabric dyeing process, artisans must pay close attention to the refinement of the fabric itself and the overall garment as a whole, because the dyeing chroma determines the effects of patterns and motifs on the fabric. In the past, the traditional dyeing craft in Vietnam mostly used natural materials from plants to create various chroma. For example, Triadica sebifera leaves and Terminalia catappa leaves were used to make dark chroma, grey indigo color was made from leaves of the Cham tree, and for a golden hue, turmeric root or buds of the Scholar tree were used. The harmony of color is also closely related to the shaping of the garment. For upper-class garments, the fabric is often dyed with vibrant, eye-catching colors. On the other hand, ordinary clothing tends to have darker chroma to suit daily activities.
The materials also decide the dyeing process. For instance, artisans must first blanch the silk white by soaking it in hot water and thoroughly clean off the sizing layer on its surface before dyeing it. For plant-based fabrics such as cotton or linen, the dyeing process is more time-consuming. After dyeing, the fabric must be stretched straight during the drying step, and then sized with glutinous rice paste. Only when the silk has been completely sized can it be wrapped around a wooden shaft and hammered to become softer.
Ethnic groups in Vietnam, typically the Tay people in Tuyen Quang, the Hmong in Ha Giang, the Thai in Nghe An, the Ma in Lam Dong, the Cham in Ninh Thuan, and the Khmer in An Giang, possess different weaving and dyeing skills, manifested through their methods, patterns and colors. This not only exhibits the diversity of the weaving and dyeing craft of the Vietnamese, but also highlights the cultural identity of each ethnic group. The traditional materials and techniques reflect the enduring vitality of a handicraft into the present day.
