Ha Thai Lacquer Village

A glossy tray of vermilion red lacquer lies still under a lamp. To reach that shine, a craftsman of Hạ Thái coats the tray with dozens of layers. Each layer is cured in a damp room and then sanded by hand, one on top of another over dozens of days.

The village of Hạ Thái lies in Duyên Thái commune, in the south of Hanoi. According to the Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports, lacquer has been made here for more than 200 years. At first the village made objects for worship: altar thrones, spirit tablets, couplets and horizontal boards. All were coated in lacquer taken from the resin of lacquer trees in the Phú Thọ region.

A major turning point came in the first half of the 20th century. According to the Nhân Dân newspaper, a craftsman named Đinh Văn Thành brought new techniques home to the village. He was a Hạ Thái native who taught at the Fine Arts College of Indochina. The techniques included setting in eggshell and mussel shell, applying silver and gold leaf, and polishing to a deeper shine. From then on, Hạ Thái lacquer was no longer only for worship. It became an applied art, with many items made for export.

The Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports says that in 1955 the Bình Minh Cooperative was founded and drew more than 600 members. The village's most prosperous time ran from 1995 to 2007. Thousands of workers poured in from other provinces. About 70 percent of the products went abroad, to Eastern Europe, Asia, Europe, the Americas, Australia and the Middle East.

The quality comes from a painstaking process. The department records that a traditional piece passes through about 16 steps. The whole work takes about 60 days. According to Nhân Dân, each coat must cure in a room with humidity above 85 percent, for 10 to 24 hours, before it is sanded. The craftsman sands the surface smooth, coats it again, cures it again and sands again, dozens of times over. The result is a deep, glossy surface that lasts for centuries.

In 2001, the Hà Tây provincial government recognized Hạ Thái as a craft village. In 2003, the Hạ Thái and Duyên Thái Lacquer Craft Village Association was founded, with three branches. In 2020, the Hanoi city government named the village a craft village tourist site, one of seven in the city.

Visitors to Hạ Thái can watch the work step by step: preparing the base, laying the undercoat, sanding it smooth, setting in eggshell or applying silver leaf, and then sanding to the final shine. It is a real place where people live and work, not a place put on for show.

The shine on a Hạ Thái tray comes from dozens of days of patience. No machine can shorten them, and that is why people still seek the village out.