People passionate about preserving stilt house culture through miniature models

Mr. Luong Ngoc Tu makes a model of Uncle Ho's stilt house. (Photo: NVCC)

Few people know that this model is a product made by the talented hands of Tay ethnic man Luong Ngoc Tu, who is passionate about preserving stilt house culture through miniature models.

Growing up in the stilt house space in Tan Thanh hamlet, Than Sa commune, Thai Nguyen province, from a young age he often followed his father to build stilt houses for local people, so the love for stilt houses formed in Luong Ngoc Tu as a natural thing. Since he was a middle school student and then a high school student, the boy born in 1989 has been tinkering with making simple miniature stilt house models to participate in exhibitions at school, hamlet, and commune camps and considers it his own hobby.

After graduating from high school, having to study far away from home, the nostalgia for the stilt house in his hometown made Tu even more passionate about making models. Until he learned to read architectural drawings, his products gradually became more sophisticated and vivid. Not only did he recreate almost exactly the space of the Viet Bac stilt house with a system of rafters, columns, doors, rooms, stairs, ancestral altars, fireplaces... in a ratio almost identical to reality, he also breathed life into the miniature works with many vivid details such as jars and pots in front of the house, or the shapes of animals such as buffaloes and cows under the stilt house...

When posting the models on his personal fanpage, Luong Ngoc Tu unexpectedly received praise from the community. At that time, he had not thought about generating income from this hobby. It was only when Tu's sewing workshop encountered difficulties due to the Covid-19 pandemic that he received offers from some people who wanted to order stilt house models. And from here, Luong Ngoc Tu decided to turn his passion into a full-time job. He understood that he had to put more effort into increasing the aesthetics as well as the durability of the miniature stilt houses.

He started to go to wood workshops to buy small pieces of good quality wood; at the same time, he invested in more machinery and remade them to have sawing machines, cutting machines, and planers capable of creating small, smooth wooden details as desired. He looked for places that could produce baked tiles or miniature landscape decorations of super small sizes made according to special molds; then he fumbled to research how to mix paint to create the most realistic and satisfactory colors...

Although the cost of materials is not expensive, to make a satisfactory model is a process that requires meticulous calculation and perseverance, from the drawing stage, building the frame, assembling each detail, decorating, painting... Each product is completely handmade, like his "brainchildren" that he carefully cares for every little detail.

Luong Ngoc Tu said that the time to complete a model usually lasts from 1 week to 1 month, depending on the size and complexity of the details. Up to now, Tu has made thousands of stilt house models. The more he does it, the more he loves and appreciates his work, especially when over time, traditional stilt houses are gradually disappearing.

Luong Ngoc Tu shared that in order to have satisfactory models, in addition to being skillful and careful, the implementer also needs to be equipped with certain knowledge to best express the culture and spirit of the stilt houses of each ethnic group and each different land. "This job helps me to expand my understanding of stilt house culture, thereby contributing to preserving and spreading this culture through miniature models," Mr. Tu shared.

Among the approximately 40 stilt house models that have been made according to customers' requests, Mr. Luong Ngoc Tu has the most emotions for the model of Uncle Ho's stilt house in the Presidential Palace Relic Site. He said that a few years ago, based only on drawings and videos online about Uncle Ho's stilt house, he was able to make the first miniature models. But it was not until he went to the capital and directly visited this project - where President Ho Chi Minh lived and worked in the last 11 years of his life (1958-1969) that the strong emotions in him were awakened to create a new version that is more realistic and sophisticated in every detail, from the table and chairs where Uncle Ho sat to work to the bed where Uncle Ho rested...

“Every time I make a model of Uncle Ho’s Stilt House, I remember stories about Uncle Ho, imagine his image and try to convey that emotion into the product,” said Mr. Luong Ngoc Tu. In addition to the model of Uncle Ho’s Stilt House built in a scale of 1/35 as a souvenir of the Presidential Palace Relic Site, Mr. Tu also made many larger models for display according to orders from schools, units and businesses. In addition to the model of Uncle Ho’s Stilt House, he also researched and made models of Nha Rong Wharf, Uncle Ho’s Mausoleum, Uncle Ho’s hut at ATK… to serve units recreating Ho Chi Minh’s cultural space.

Up to now, with the increasing number of orders, Luong Ngoc Tu is directly creating livelihoods for some local people who are also attached to the stilt house space, by mobilizing them to participate in some stages of implementation. That is the way for him to both bring income to the highland people and contribute to preserving and maintaining the stilt house culture - the unique identity of many ethnic groups.

TRANG ANH

Source: https://nhandan.vn/nguoi-dam-me-luu-giu-van-hoa-nha-san-qua-mo-hinh-thu-nho-post906803.html