Creation from palm tree trunk

Old palm trees, often too tall for people to climb to collect leaves and fruit, have hollow trunks that are easily broken or knocked over. Families participating in community tourism in Nghia Do commune (Bao Yen district) have utilized these tree trunks to decorate their homes and living spaces.

Homestay No. 1 Me Thieu, Ban Hon village, is one of the attractive destinations for tourists visiting Nghia Do. With a spacious garden, many green trees, and a breezy stilt house next to the Nam Cam stream, at Me Thieu, visitors can immerse themselves in the atmosphere of a traditional Tay family home. To add a unique touch to the homestay, the owners creatively utilized old palm tree trunks to design and install a lighting system along the fence.

To make these lamps, which serve both as lighting and decoration, Mrs. Thuy's family used the trunks of old palm trees, specifically the part near the base. According to folk wisdom, the trunks of old palm trees are very durable, resistant to termites and woodworms, and are readily available locally, environmentally friendly, and cost-effective.

During the day, the palm-leaf lamps look like wooden mushrooms, while at night, when the lights are switched on, the homestay space becomes dazzling and radiant. The palm-leaf lamp system has been used to decorate the Me Thieu homestay for about two months now, and many tourists staying here are delighted and impressed by this creative idea.

While also using palm trunks to decorate their homes, the family of Ms. Co Thi Bay in Muong Kem village incorporated them into a fence design. Mature palm trunks were split lengthwise into long, wide strips about 20 cm wide, forming a fence around their garden. Along with the wooden gate and the stilt house with a palm-thatched roof, the palm fence adds a harmonious touch to the overall space of the house.

Ms. Co Thi Bay said: "Previously, we only knew how to use palm leaves to roof houses, weave fans, make blinds, and eat palm fruit. Old, tall palm trees that couldn't yield leaves or fruit were simply cut down. Recently, after receiving guidance from cultural and tourism experts from Bao Yen district on using palm trunks to decorate our house, my family has applied this to make palm fences, and we find it very useful."

In the future, Mrs. Bay's family will plant more medicinal plants in their garden inside the fence, both to preserve valuable medicinal species and to make the garden greener and more beautiful, enhancing the beauty of the palm tree fence.

For the family of Mr. Hoang Van Che in Na Khuong village, the creative use of palm tree trunks is applied to making flower pots. Choosing old, tall palm trees that cannot be pruned, Mr. Che saws them into sections about 1 meter long. Then he hollows out the trunk, fills the core with soil, and plants flowers. In addition, he also uses palm trunks to make water troughs, an environmentally friendly item that harmonizes with the traditional stilt house architecture.

Mr. Hoang Van Che shared: "The characteristic of a palm tree trunk is that its outer layer is hard and strong, while the core is soft and porous. Therefore, it is very easy to hollow out the trunk, creating an inner cavity that can be used for planting flowers, or making water troughs, handwashing basins, footwashing basins... for daily use in the family."

Nowadays, many families tend to decorate and design their homes in an environmentally friendly way. Especially in Nghia Do, a locality preserving the traditional culture of the Tay people to develop tourism, environmentally friendly materials readily available locally are prioritized. The use of old palm trunks to decorate living spaces and guest areas in homestays in Nghia Do is done under the guidance of cultural and tourism consultants, ensuring that the designs are both eco-friendly and aesthetically pleasing.

Through surveys of homestay households in Nghia Do commune, a community tourism destination, we found that families have received advice and guidance from experts on designing palm tree trunks for various purposes, avoiding repetition and creating unique highlights at each homestay. Each design created using palm tree trunks tells a fascinating story to tourists.

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