The last basket weaver of Tra Nhieu village

Mr. Tran Van Hy with his newly completed basket boat. Photo: VINH LOC

Mr. Hy said that when he was a teenager, he knew how to weave bamboo, mainly household items such as baskets, trays, winnowing trays, winnowing trays, rice bins, etc., but then the war interrupted his work, so he worked and rested. Even so, up to now, he has been in the profession for nearly 70 years.

After the liberation, he started weaving bamboo baskets for fishermen to go to sea. The most "prosperous" period was when Cam Thanh tourism (Hoi An City) developed, many bamboo baskets were sold by him to the locals to serve visitors to the coconut forest. However, after a while, the appearance of composite plastic baskets caused the bamboo baskets to stagnate. Now he weaves one occasionally but the price is not much.

To complete a basket of chai (2m in diameter), Mr. Hy spends about half a month (splitting bamboo, weaving, lining, and planting oil), the selling price is 5 million VND/basket, which is considered a profit. "If we calculate smoothly, we can make 2 a month, but it's not always possible to have orders. Not to mention this and that, and then there are weddings and funerals, so the work is irregular" - Mr. Hy said.

Mr. Tran Van Hy and his "students" work at Tra Nhieu Traditional Craft Village. Photo: VINH LOC

The income is low but the work is not easy. According to Mr. Hy, besides selecting good bamboo (old, straight, solid...), cutting and transporting it, the hardest and heaviest step is bending the sides and shaping the rim of the basket, because the rim is round to make the basket round. Each basket has a total of 7 rims (4 on the outside and 3 on the inside) but he is the only one doing it, slowly every day.

Depending on the requirements, there are many different types and sizes of bamboo baskets. For example, those used to shake and spin to perform for tourists in Cam Thanh coconut forest must have a pointed bottom so that the surface has less contact with the water, making it easier to spin. On the contrary, bamboo baskets used to carry people or go squid fishing have a flatter bottom.

Mr. Hy's family is small, just an old couple. In fact, he and his wife have a son, but he got married and started a business in Nui Thanh, and only come back to visit occasionally. "God gave me the health to work for a living, but my children have their own lives, so I don't expect anything" - Mr. Hy shared and said that although he is still healthy, in recent years he has not dared to "risk" picking bamboo anymore, afraid that when pulling the tree, he might fall, it would be dangerous, and no one would care.

Tra Nhieu Traditional Craft Village is under construction. Photo: VINH LOC

For nearly 2 months now, Mr. Hy has been working in the Tra Nhieu Traditional Craft Village tourist area under construction a few hundred meters from his house. His main job is weaving bamboo baskets and performing for visitors. In particular, he has passed on the craft to two "disciples", also 70 years old. Every day, Mr. Hy is paid 300,000 VND, which is considered as extra income to take care of fish sauce, salt, and weddings.

Mr. Quan Trai (Tra Dong village), who claimed to be Mr. Hy's student, admitted that he knew a little about bamboo craft before, but he couldn't weave bamboo baskets, so he followed Mr. Hy to learn the craft so that when the tourist area opens to welcome visitors, he can show them to them. Currently, Mr. Trai and his students have finished weaving 4 baskets, the goal is to complete about 10 baskets, enough for a rowing team to take visitors to Tra Nhieu coconut forest.

“The reason I learned to weave bamboo baskets is firstly because I like this profession because it has been associated with my grandparents since ancient times but now it has all disappeared. Secondly, I want to know how to show tourists when they visit the village, because if I weave baskets to sell, I won’t be able to make enough money for the effort,” Mr. Trai explained.

Mr. Tran Van Hy and Mr. Tran Duy Tam at Tra Nhieu Traditional Craft Village. Photo: VINH LOC

According to Mr. Tran Duy Tam - a member of the Tra Nhieu Traditional Craft Village Cooperative Group, with the aim of restoring local traditional crafts, from the end of 2024, he and a number of people have rented land to build the Tra Nhieu Traditional Craft Village area associated with tourism. It is expected that when completed and put into operation, the craft village area will be a place to perform traditional crafts such as mat weaving, net weaving, bamboo weaving for souvenirs, basket weaving, rice paper making, incense making, cajuput oil refining... In which, basket weaving will be the soul of the tourist area combined with basket boating tour in Tra Nhieu coconut forest.

“After the tourism area is stable, we will call on and connect people to form cooperatives to create livelihoods and income for people through vocational demonstration activities. Visitors to the village will experience traditional occupations such as basket weaving, noodle making, wine making, fishing, etc., so people like Mr. Hy are very important, because it is not only a treasure trove of living knowledge about basket weaving but also associated with the culture of Tra Nhieu land as well as the river occupations of the village” – Mr. Tam shared.

Source: https://baoquangnam.vn/nguoi-dan-thung-chai-cuoi-cung-cua-lang-tra-nhieu-3154381.html