Dong Ho paintings are officially an intangible cultural heritage in need of urgent protection.

This afternoon, December 9, the Intergovernmental Committee for the 2003 Convention approved the decision to include the Dong Ho painting craft heritage in the list of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding.

Currently, there are only a few families making Dong Ho folk paintings - Photo: Department of Cultural Heritage

The decision was made during the 20th session of the Intergovernmental Committee of the 2003 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage, currently taking place in India.

This is Vietnam's 17th heritage site to be inscribed on UNESCO's list of intangible cultural heritage, and its 37th overall heritage site (comprising 9 World Cultural and Natural Heritage sites, 17 intangible cultural heritage sites, and 11 documentary heritage sites).

Only a few households still make Dong Ho paintings.

According to the Intergovernmental Committee of the 2003 Convention on the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage, the nomination dossier for the Dong Ho folk painting craft of Vietnam meets the criteria for inscription on the list of Intangible Cultural Heritage in need of urgent safeguarding.

That is, Dong Ho folk paintings are closely associated with important festivals such as Lunar New Year and Mid-Autumn Festival, as well as rituals for worshipping ancestors and deities.

Artisan carving Dong Ho folk paintings on woodblocks - Photo: Department of Cultural Heritage

However, today the number of skilled artisans has decreased sharply (according to nomination records, only a few households maintain the profession), due to the young generation's lack of interest, the profession's difficulty in securing a livelihood, and the declining demand for woodblock prints during traditional holidays.

The number of skilled and dedicated people pursuing the profession is too small to maintain teaching and painting, so the profession needs urgent protection.

Vietnam's conservation plan sets out seven goals, including: opening vocational training classes, inventorying heritage, designing models, diversifying markets, improving access to raw materials, and providing equipment. protection for artisans

The Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage 2003 assessed that the proposed activities are feasible, appropriate to their objectives and sustainable, and place the community at the centre…

Therefore, the Intergovernmental Committee of the 2003 Convention decided to inscribe the craft of Dong Ho folk painting on the list of Intangible Cultural Heritage in need of urgent safeguarding and encouraged Vietnam to consider integrating this heritage into its education system, both formal and informal, in order to encourage the younger generation to understand and appreciate the importance of protecting this heritage.

Dong Ho Painting Wedding of the Rats

500 years of Dong Ho painting craft

According to the Department of Cultural Heritage, the craft of making Dong Ho folk paintings in Dong Khe quarter, Thuan Thanh ward, Bac Ninh province, was born about 500 years ago.

The community of practitioners created paintings that were distinctive in subject matter, printing technique, color, and graphics using woodblock printing techniques.

The themes of these paintings often include devotional paintings, celebratory paintings, historical paintings, scenes of daily life, and landscape paintings, associated with the custom of hanging paintings during the Lunar New Year, Mid-Autumn Festival, ancestor worship, and deity worship.

The entire process of creating the design, carving the printing blocks, preparing the colors, and printing the pictures is done by hand. The design is drawn with a brush and ink on handmade paper and carved onto a wooden block.

The colors are made from natural ingredients: blue from indigo leaves, red from red gravel, yellow from pagoda tree flowers and gardenia fruit, white from weathered scallop powder, black from bamboo leaf ash and sticky rice straw.

The painting is printed using a reverse-printing method with five primary colors on dó paper that has been coated with a layer of butterfly-shaped ink. The colors are printed according to the principle that red is printed first, followed by blue, yellow, and white. The black outline is printed last to complete the painting.

Bac Ninh has 6 UNESCO-listed heritage sites.

Up to now, the whole country has 37 heritages recorded in UNESCO lists.

In particular, Bac Ninh province has typical heritages recognized and registered by UNESCO including: 5 representative intangible cultural heritages of humanity (Bac Ninh Quan Ho, Dong Ho folk painting, Ca Tru, Mother Goddess worship, Huu Chap tug of war); one inter-provincial world cultural heritage (Yen Tu - Vinh Nghiem - Con Son, Kiep Bac complex).

Among them are important relics such as Vinh Nghiem Pagoda; the Buddhist scripture woodblocks of Vinh Nghiem Pagoda are included in the Memory of the World list of the Asia-Pacific region.

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Source: https://tuoitre.vn/tranh-dong-ho-chinh-thuc-la-di-san-van-hoa-phi-vat-the-can-bao-ve-khan-cap-20251209175405969.htm