Canh Hoach village hasn’t always been synonymous with birdcages. At one time the tiny hamlet, just an hour's drive from Hanoi, was devoted to heavy industry. While the signpost still features the old name, Vac, which literally means to carry heavy objects', the villages have turned to lighter, not to mention more picturesque, work.
Villages dedicated to particular handicrafts are common in Vietnam. At least 50 specialized villages surround Hanoi. They produce such diverse wares as rice paper, ceramics, snake wine, furniture, noodles, and silk. Some villages have manufactories; others have responded to more recent market demands. Sadly, many of the old handicraft skills are dying out as more and younger people leave to study and work in the city.
Nguyen Van Ti introducer’s birdcage making to Canh Hoach. He taught his son, Nguyen Van Nghi (1917-a995) who in turn taught several of the village finest craftspeople. Nghi's wife, Ngoi, and their son, Su, continue to make delicate birdcages, complete with bau ruou intricately carved wood and bone lings. Elaborate custom hangers. Elaborate, custom ordered cages can fetch up to VND2m.
Despite their many years of experience, Ngoi and her son can earn only VND15, 000-20,000 per day from their craft. This is too little to support the whole family and like many birdcage makers in Canh Hoach, they continue to rely on rice farming for their main income. One exception is the Bui family, who make cages even during the rice harvests in May and September. They hire laborers to harvest their five acres of paddy.
Old faiths, new jobs
In the centre of Canh Hoach stands a spectacular Catholic cathedral. Both Buddhist and Christian families live here and traditionally different work. In the past, the Buddhist families made gio tra, bamboo baskets used to insulate tea pots, The Catholics, meanwhile, made paper for fans and firecrackers.
The Bui family is Christian. When firecrackers were outlawed in 1993, they lost their main source of livelihood. Quy approached the Buddhist salary to learn their craft."I have affair for it," he says. "I learned in a third the amount of time it takes many people."When Quy had mastered the necessary skills he taught his wife, Thu, and her 16-year old brother.
Today, the three of them each earn around VND15, 000 per day. They concentrate on high-end, custom -ordered cages, which take two people two full days' work to complete and fetch around VND100,000. The average cage in the street costs only a tenth that and can be made by one person in half a day. "It is better than working in the hot sun in the fields," says Thu. "This way, I can spend more time in the house with my children."
Some of the skills needed to make gio tra, the bamboo tea baskets, have been carried over for the production of birdcages. To make the cages' bases, which are round, very fresh bamboo is pushed through a ban nan, a device used to bend the stalks. When the stalks are the right shape they are wired together, then dipped in boiling water to prevent them from splitting. The bamboo is then left to soak for a month. Later, a hand held drill, or khoan run, is used to punch holes into the base. Bamboo strips, which have been threaded through an instrument that shaves off bumps, become the cage's bars. Finally, the cage is embellished with carving.
Hang Da market in Hanoi hosts a lively bird market. As you peer at the brightly colored birds, spare a thought for the birdcage makers. In the future their skills will certainly grows what the signpost on the road to Canh Hoach will say in the future.
This article written by Lanh Nguyen from Vietnam Heritage Travel
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