The H’mong Women And The Weaving Of Linen In Lung Tam – Quan Ba – Ha Giang

The H’mong ethnic peoples in northern of Vietnam is one of those ethnic minorities who live spread out everywhere in the highland to the north of Vietnam. The lifestyle of the H’mong in Vietnam is abundant and interesting from the everyday life to supernatural and cultural activities, festivities of them. Their costume’s colors are also play an important role in the life since the beginning of time till now..

The materials used to create the costume are or self-made and produced to serve their own needs and for their community’s as well…

The Lung Tam commune of Quan Ba district of Ha Giang province is a very special place where the people harvest the materials from the forest to weave cloth and fabrics for costume and other related objects.

These products are also called “ Linen fabric – Brocade fabric” ….

Linen fabric are made from the Linum usitatissimum which is also called linen tree ‘s fiber, these trees grow in large group around the forests in the north of Vietnam. The production of linen fabric is hard and takes a lot of effort but this type of fabric is very valuable and popular because of their characteristics that make them the best choice when it came to the making of summer clothes.

Colorful products are made from natural herbs. The process of decorating in the linen fabric is done with beeswax, this is also one of the hardest process that only the most skillful and meticulous hand can do.. The Lung Tam commune at one time had two women who are almost 100 years old who are up to the challenge of the process, now there only one person left but she still working very hard days after days and there are very few young women who want to learn her job.

A whole life devoted to the decorating of linen fabric has makes her fingers become convulsive due to working for too long in a sole posture…

Nowadays, the job of weaving linen and creating fashion products could held improving the hard life of the poor, help them earn a considerable amount of profits and gain the attention of tourists around the world, thus the village’s girls still try their best and working together so as to improve the quality of life and also to conserve the traditional crafting culture that their ancestor created…

By the means of rudimentary tools such as single weaving frame, wooden, bamboo .. stretched by band to weave one by one of the linen threads (after harvest, hang to dry, strip and shred and then roll into rolls) The linen threads are put in the weaving machine. The decorating process is done by the most skillful hands that dip the bamboo pen into hot beeswax to draw unique patterns on the fabric.

After that the fabric is dyed a couple of time and then boiled to get rid of the beeswax. The shapes and the patterns will not absorb the color and when the wax come out it will show a pattern on the fabric. The colors of linen fabric are not sharp or brilliant but elegant and have a very natural touch to it which come from the materials harvested from the forest..

After receiving perfected line fabric, the creativity of H’mong women will have to shape magnificent fashion product of many color and cuteness such as skirts, scarfs, shirts, handbags,…

There is no way you can pass on the many color of H’mong costumes in your trip to the northern forests of Vietnam.

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