Unique colors of Quy Chau brocade

Land of beautiful mountains and rivers

Located on the banks of Hieu RiverQuy ChauThis season is green with spring rice and fertile mountains and forests. In March, spring flowers bloom all over the mountainsides, streams, and winding roads leading to the ancient Thai villages. Ancient roses and peonies bloom in harmony with the soil, and poinsettias are bright red...

The road to the villages with water wheels by the stream bringing water to the fields is the most impressive image that attracts tourists. More than a construction, this is a gift from the mountains and forests to the fields for warm and prosperous golden seasons. It has started to be more fun when occasionally there are groups of tourists coming to learn about culture and community tourism...

Western visitors' experience at Hoa Tien village (Quy Chau). Photo: Source: Facebook Sam Thi Tinh

After more than 2 years of heavy impact from the Covid-19 pandemic, the community tourism village which had achieved 4-star OCOP status was at risk of disappearing, but is now being restored. The stilt houses and homestays have begun to be redecorated, brocade products and artifacts are displayed, and flower gardens and ornamental plants are planted outside the gate. All are like prayers for a favorable tourism and production season...

Tourists learn about Quy Chau brocade patterns. Photo: TP

The tree-lined village road took us home.Hoa Tien community tourism village (Quy Chau)). Here, 2019 is the first year Nghe An implemented the OCOP Program and the village was honored to receive the 4-star OCOP title.

It is a great honor because Chau Tien is a remote and isolated village and above all, the community tourism product is an OCOP product that is still new in Vietnam. The Quy Chau brocade weaving products and the community tourism here resonate together to create a unique cultural feature of Nghe An.

The brocade products here, especially the silk scarves with unique patterns, have reached many markets and are known by many friends.

Director of Hoa Tien Brocade Cooperative - Ms. Sam Thi Bich said: The brocade weaving profession, which was originally to make clothes and blankets to serve daily life, has gradually gained an important position in the cultural and spiritual life of the people. There are brocade products that are hundreds of years old and still preserved without being damaged. The dowry of daughters when they get married is also brocade. Those items are more precious because they are distilled from nature and cherished by the talented hands of artisans, grandmothers, mothers, and sisters, conveying gratitude and affection, creativity and responsibility.

Talking about the color creation method, Ms. Bich said: Purple is dyed from sticky rice leaves, withered grass leaves to create the green color, coffee leaves to create the copper brown color... Then from the 5 basic colors, the women and mothers also create diverse and harmonious colors that are imbued with the identity of the country and especially in harmony with world fashion trends. Moreover, brocade is safe for health and the environment, so it is favored by international tourists. Ms. Bich said, it sounds simple, but this is a whole process of processing, drawing on experience, mixing level, keeping the fire...

Silk scarf products of Quy Chau. Photo: Tran Chau

To integrate into the market and bring culture to friends, Hoa Tien Brocade Cooperative has actively promoted on e-commerce channels through Facebook, Zalo pages, or opened a system of stores in Hanoi. However, it still needs more support from the locality and functional sectors. For example, the Cooperative is currently in great need of support for a booth to introduce local products so that visitors can come here to learn, experience, take photos with brocade products... because these activities are currently organized right in families, causing many inconveniences.

Banana and pineapple fibers make brocade

Women in Hoa Tien village (Quy Chau) separate and join banana fibers before weaving. Photo: Tran Chau

In addition to the long-standing story of weaving Quynh Luu pineapple fibers into brocade, now with the familiar banana tree of the Vietnamese people, women in Quy Chau district have once again succeeded in processing banana fibers into brocade. After being crushed from banana trunks, banana fibers are dried into large and small pieces of yarn, which are brought back to the village.

Image of banana fibers woven into fabric in Quy Chau. Photo: Tran Chau

From here, the women carefully untangle each fiber, separate them into tiny strands, then knot them together to make them long, then roll them into rolls to start weaving. The process of creating fibers is no less difficult than the weaving process. The banana fiber sheaths, under the meticulousness of the women, finally become fibers to weave into large sheets of naturally bright colored fabric. From here, banana fiber fabric is imported for other partners to consume or produce more sophisticated, high-quality products.

From raw banana fibers through many stages, Thai women in Quy Chau weave them into fabric. Photo: Tran Chau

It is known that since ancient times, in Japan and Nepal, banana fibers have been commonly used to make table mats, floor mats and roofing. The Japanese have known how to grow bananas since the 13th century to get fiber to weave clothes and make household items. By the 19th century, banana fibers (abaca fibers) were used to make ropes on ships.

Currently, India and China are the countries with the largest banana growing areas in the world. The banana fiber market has been formed and developed for about 15 - 20 years and is increasingly vibrant...

Leaders of Nghe An Rural Development Department and leaders of Quy Chau District Agriculture Department were surprised by the banana fiber woven products in Quy Chau. Photo: Tran Chau

Banana fiber is not only flexible, absorbent, fireproof, but also mold-resistant, breathable, very light, soundproof, and insulating. Banana fiber is now present in tens of thousands of products and consumer items such as paper money, printing paper, wrapping paper, and filter paper. With their ingenuity, women in Quy Chau have woven hundreds of meters of banana fiber to import for partners, the weaving cost per meter is 250,000 VND.

In addition to brocade products, there are currently 9 homestay models operating in Hoa Tien (Quy Chau). At the homestays, in addition to accommodation services, visitors can also experience the natural scenery, enjoy the Quy Chau landscape with specialty rice fields, irrigation water wheels, and experience the life of the locals both in reality and through the exhibits on display with jewelry, musical instruments, brocade, etc.

Natural scenery in Quy Chau. Photo courtesy of Nghe An Newspaper

Experience traveling to Quy Chau. Photo: Sam Thi Tinh