This typical village lies on the bank of Saigon River. It looks really great with the sunshine reflecting from the river. The village lies peacefully under the blue sky with floating soft white clouds and in the gentle breeze coming from the river.
I happened to know the painters’ village when I had chance to join a film of the VTC6 – Saigon Chanel to shoot a program about this special apace of Ho Chi Minh City. Along the Saigon River, right on what people for generations called Giong Ong To, lays the Ham Long artisans’ village. It is also called “painters’ or art village as all the villagers are painters, sculptors or artists. That is why it is known to people as a living museum with works of famous artists and with old architecture everywhere.
Painter Lu Khac Nhu, Chairman of the Art club of precinct 5, recalled that in the 1990s, a number of painters or artists of Ho Chi Minh City’s inspiration or chare experiences with friends. At that time they were all attracted by this place which was full of grasses, sunshine and wind. Where they found themselves close to nature, for many, one the most important factors for their creativity. For them, whether their work and to live among people with similar aspirations who could share both empathy and sympathy.
Because “birds of a feather flock together”, more painters and artists settled down in the place, forming this typical village. Each house has its own private space, different architecture and a different style of decoration but they all have gates connecting to neighbors on either side to maintain “the neighborhood feel”.
Ham Long Artisan Village can be regarded as a venue of different regions. Some selected the styles of the Imperial City of hue; some selected the style of people in the Central Highlands while others prefer the style of the Muong ethnic minority group in northwestern Vietnam. The architecture and decoration and utensils are also of the same style.
The houses are in fact the place to nurture the owners’ inspiration and creation
What possesses by painter Ly Khac Nhu impressed me most. His 3,000-squa-metre-spase, called “wonderful lion it includes an exhibition room; different areas for sculpture; ceramics, painting; handicraft works and other kind of creation; a place of both recreation and relaxation.
Painter Ly Khac Nhu’s compound is comprised of ten small house linking with each other by tiny bridges with different functions, the owner used to inquire after the nature and background of those who wish to visit his place so as to treat them exactly as they had expected. On the day we came, painter Ly Khac Nhu welcomed a group of children guests who were introduced to the art of ceramic making and lacquer painting. The hospitable host even invited an artisan to demonstrate the art of making Cham ceramic from Binh Thuan Province these enthralled children.
Talking with him, I realized that this ambitious has been nurturing major project on developing lacquer painting following the new orientations and on establishing a museum of wooden statues representing the 54 ethnic minority groups of Vietnam. By now, he has also nurtured a plan of turn his from inside and outside Vietnam to come and display their works, share experiences and create new products. He does hope that with these activities, his own property and the painters’ younger generation and for those who wish to enrich their knowledge of the arts.
At present, Vietnamese and foreign tourists also can have access to Ham Long Village when joining tours on Saigon River
This article written by Lanh Nguyen from Vietnam Heritage Travel
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