Listening to the ancient land of Hoang La

(Baonghean) - We visited the ancient village of Hoang La (Dien Hoang commune, Dien Chau) on an early summer afternoon, the golden sunlight spread across the green rice fields, charmingly framing the road leading to the countryside, which long ago soon became a prosperous, rich-in-identity countryside...

Hoang La has the Son Tinh River that has silently embraced and protected for thousands of years. The red cotton flowers of the last season fall into the pond of Ba Quan Temple. Coming to the village means immersing yourself in the legend of Ba Quan associated with the pineapple-corn hammock weaving craft here. Coming to Hoang La today, meeting anyone and asking about the pineapple-corn hammock weaving craft, everyone will clearly explain how to do it. The hammock weaving craft has helped Hoang La people get through the lean months for generations, so that each child born and raised in that time can understand and appreciate more the sweat and tears of labor, of a cultural beauty that cannot be found anywhere else. Unfortunately, the craft has faded away.

A corner of Hoang La village

...The old story tells that Mrs. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Oanh, the daughter of the Duke, General Duong Son Hau Nguyen Nhiem, was born in the early 16th century, originally from Thanh Hoa. In 1522, she followed her father and relatives to migrate to Dong Thanh to hide from the chaos of the Mac Dynasty. She was naturally intelligent, compassionate, and born into a prestigious family, with generations of officials and a rich tradition of loyalty and patriotism. Her sense of responsibility to her homeland and country was also formed in her very early.

During the Le - Mac period, when the Le dynasty transferred Nguyen Nhiem to be the governor of Nghe An, he chose the land of Dien Hoang today as the center of the resistance base against the Mac. Princess Nguyen Thi Ngoc Oanh actively developed the estates to create position and strength for the new base. In just a short time, with the support of her relatives, she recruited people and established 19 estates; wherever they were built, she handed them over to the estate managers to manage them themselves, without collecting taxes. Thanks to that, the estates reclaimed and established by the Princess became a solid strategic belt for the resistance base...

The people of Hoang La are grateful to her not only because the Princess was the one who opened the land and established the hamlet, helping the people to stabilize their lives, but her contributions are also mentioned as the one who created and taught the craft of making hammocks from pineapple corn. After the Princess passed away, the people built a temple to worship her called Ba Quan Temple. Ba Quan and the characters in the Nguyen family who had contributed to the people and the country were appointed as the village's guardian deities by the feudal dynasties.

Talking about the hammock weaving profession that has been with her for almost her entire life, Mrs. Vu Thi Tin (82, Hoang La village) looked up with cloudy eyes, looking into the distance as if regretting the profession that has gone into the past. At the age of 8, Mrs. Tin helped her parents weave hammocks. For every child born in that village, weaving hammocks is a natural thing. Her old, wrinkled hands cannot remember how many hammocks she has woven for life. To raise 8 small children, those small hands worked tirelessly regardless of the hot summer afternoons or the cold winter nights. Mrs. Tin was the last person in Hoang La still weaving hammocks 2 years ago. Before saying goodbye to the profession, she wove her grandchild the last hammock as a souvenir.

The temple of the Lady of the District in Hoang La village is famous for its sacredness.

The pineapple corn hammocks in Hoang La are highly durable, the more they are used, the smoother they become, and they lie very cool, so they are popular in the market. Hoang La pineapple corn hammocks have two types: stretcher hammocks and lu hammocks. Stretcher hammocks are the hammocks used to carry officials and dignitaries in society. When the hammocks are finished, they are painted with dragon - unicorn - turtle - phoenix images in colored paint on the outside to increase the majesty of the person sitting on the hammock. Lu hammocks are commonly produced for use in every family, the two ends of the lu hammocks are woven very firmly by the craftsman, so that when hung in the shackles, they can still be safely swung strongly.

The people of Hoang La use pineapple corn to plant on pond banks, fences, field banks or in places where there is still not enough land. To have fiber to weave hammocks, people have to walk dozens of kilometers, to Quynh Luu then to Yen Thanh, Do Luong... to buy pineapple corn, sometimes they have to go for weeks to find the raw material. The demand for raw materials to weave hammocks has also created a team of people who specialize in buying and reselling to the people.

In the past, in Hoang La, there were many hammock-making guilds. In fact, they were places where people gathered to make hammocks to work, sing, and have fun, making the work more productive and less tiring. The hammock-making guilds in Hoang La were not much different from the fabric-making guilds in Nam Dan. In those days, on hot summer afternoons, people often gathered under the bamboo trees along the edge of the village, weaving hammocks and enjoying the cool breeze to relieve the scorching heat.

Time flies, the pineapple hammock making profession now only remains in the unforgettable memories of the Hoang La children who used to tirelessly spin hammocks to earn a living. And somewhere in the memories of the boys and girls who spent their childhood with hammocks, there still lingers a village tradition from long ago woven from the kind heart of Princess Nguyen Thi Ngoc Oanh.

Thai orchid