The weaving profession of the Ta Oi people in Lam Dot commune, A Luoi district, Thua Thien Hue province has existed for a long time and has been passed down through many generations. Weaving has become an indispensable profession to serve the daily life as well as bring income to the people here.
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| Ms. Ho Thi Ngop, Vice President of the Women's Union of Lam Dot commune, and her family weave zèng. |
Ms. Ho Thi Nam's family in A Dot village, Lam Dot commune has 3 generations of weaving zèng. Witnessing the weaving process, attaching beads to zèng with all kinds of beautiful patterns, we could not help but admire. While instructing her daughter to weave zèng, Ms. Ho Thi Nam said: "I have been weaving zèng since I was 10 years old, now it has been nearly 30 years. It takes a lot of time to make a zèng, we often do it after work in the fields. Especially in the rainy and cold season, weaving looms are placed all over the house, the elderly and the young participate in weaving zèng".
Products made from Zeng play an important role in daily life and are highly valued by the people. Zeng products often feature images of life, including three main shapes: pyramids, diamonds and straight lines, with patterns of plants, animals, objects, people and the surrounding world .
In the craft of weaving zèng, the role of the mother is very important, because when the daughter grows up, she must know how to weave the traditional zèng of her people, passed down by her mother. Talking to us, Ms. Ho Thi Ngop, Vice President of the Women's Union of Lam Dot commune, said: "When a daughter gets married, she must bring zèng as a dowry when she moves to her husband's house. Depending on the circumstances, each family has different regulations on the number of zèng to bring. Poor families have about 20-30 zèng, rich families can have up to 100 zèng, which are brought by the bride's family to the groom's family on the wedding day. In return, the groom's family will bring pigs, buffaloes, and cows to the bride's family, the number of pigs, buffaloes, and cows also depends on the circumstances of the groom's family."
In the past, the Ta Oi people still kept almost intact the raw materials, technical tools and traditional zèng production process. The raw materials to create these products are usually cotton plants grown by the people on the fields, going through many stages such as: harvesting, drying, separating, picking cotton, rolling, rolling, spinning, spreading and then pulling into thread... Once the thread is available, people dye it with leaves, bark, tubers, and roots of trees exploited from the mountains and forests. The main colors are black, red and white, then dried and rolled into buds and woven. The zèng mat is used to sew clothes, make wallets, handbags, carpets...
According to comrade Ho Chinh Be, Chairman of Lam Dot Commune People's Committee, in some villages and hamlets, over 90% of households participate in weaving zèng. The price of the product ranges from 500,000 VND to 600,000 VND/regular piece and from 800,000 VND to 1.2 million VND/beaded piece. The zèng weaving profession of the ethnic minorities not only promotes the cultural identity of the ethnic groups, but also helps people have stable jobs, contributes to hunger eradication, poverty reduction, and brings a stable life to the people here.
In 2015, for the first time, A Luoi zèng weaving was introduced to the domestic and international public at the Traditional Craft Festival in Hue City. The unique features of the zèng brocade of the Ta Oi people have attracted the attention of visitors from near and far. Promoting the value of traditional crafts, local authorities and people are interested in preserving and maintaining the zèng weaving craft. In addition, the locality has coordinated with Economic - Defense Group 92 (Military Region 4) to propagate and mobilize local union members, youth and students to respect the zèng weaving craft, wear zèng fabric costumes on holidays and in community activities, contributing to preserving the traditional zèng weaving craft of the Ta Oi people.
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