Artisan Sam Thi Bich - the weaver who creates the dream of Hoa Tien brocade.

Rekindling the colors of traditional brocade

Along with language and music, brocade is the "soul" of the Thai people. The Thai people consider brocade to be indispensable items in their daily lives. Brocade weaving has become an important criterion for evaluating the character of a Thai girl upon reaching adulthood. Therefore, from a young age, Thai girls are taught how to weave brocade by their mothers. Artisan Sam Thi Bich (59 years old), from Hoa Tien village, Chau Tien commune, is no exception. Ms. Bich recounts: The Thai people still pass down the folk verse "Vam mu pe lai, ngai mu pe poc," which translates to "pulling silk threads with both hands facing down, embroidering patterns and leaves with both hands facing up." The verse means that a Thai girl must be skilled in brocade weaving. Continuing this tradition, from a young age, I was taught by my grandmother, mother, older sister, and aunt how to raise silkworms, weave fabric, dye fabric, and embroider...

Intelligent and skillful, Mrs. Sam Thi Bich quickly mastered the secrets of brocade weaving and created beautiful dresses, scarves, and bags for herself and her family. Every day, outside of her working in the fields and gardens, Mrs. Bich enthusiastically and diligently engaged in sowing seeds, planting cotton, raising silkworms, spinning yarn, dyeing with indigo, weaving fabric, and even cutting, sewing, and embroidering.

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To create a brocade product, the most time-consuming step is attaching the threads to the frame. The thread placement depends on the type of product and the pattern. Whether the product is beautiful and eye-catching depends on the natural dyes used. For example, orange-yellow is obtained from the seeds of the sum pu plant, banana-leaf green from the leaves of the muoc tree, yellow from the core of the jackfruit tree or the roots of the xet or pui trees, brown from coffee leaves, and red from lac... Each artisan has their own secret recipe for mixing and blending colors.

Artisan Sam Thi Bich

Because of her love and dedication to the traditional brocade weaving of her ethnic group, Ms. Sam Thi Bich was deeply saddened when the craft declined for a long time in the Muong Chieng Ngam region. The decline of brocade weaving is due to many reasons, including its inability to compete with other industrial fabrics in terms of both price and popularity. Older people have left the loom; younger generations are no longer interested in the craft... many patterns and formulas for making dyes from plants and herbs have gradually disappeared.

Amidst worries about the decline of the traditional brocade weaving craft, unexpected joy came to Mrs. Sam Thi Bich. In 1992, a project to support the restoration of brocade weaving was launched in Quy Chau district (formerly) in Nghe An province. At that time, Mrs. Lang Thi Hong - an agricultural official of the district (later the Vice Chairman of the District People's Committee) - visited Hoa Tien village, met with those passionate about the craft, including Mrs. Bich, and discussed establishing a brocade weaving cooperative to revive the traditional craft. The cooperative was established with the participation of 10 women. To bring brocade back to life, the cooperative sought out Mrs. Sam Thi Vien - an elderly and highly skilled artisan in the region - to learn more, rediscover the intricate patterns, delicate lines, and dyeing secrets that created the beauty of Hoa Tien brocade of the past.

The Hoa Tien brocade weaving cooperative quickly produced high-quality products. With the support of local authorities and departments, these brocade products were exported to Laos and showcased at domestic and international trade fairs and handicraft competitions. From there, orders from both domestic and international sources began to arrive. Income from brocade weaving during the off-season reached approximately 1 million VND per month for each woman in the cooperative. As a key figure in the cooperative, Ms. Sam Thi Bich, in addition to weaving brocade products, actively participated in promoting and marketing the products. Ms. Bich recounted: “By 1997, Hoa Tien brocade was present in many famous tourist destinations in Vietnam such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City; it even reached foreign countries like China, France, Canada, and the non-governmental organization Craft Link was a regular customer.”

The sale of brocade has revived the weaving craft in Chau Tien commune and led to new developments. In 2009, Hoa Tien Brocade Weaving Village was recognized as a small-scale handicraft village by the People's Committee of Nghe An province. From just 10 people participating in the Hoa Tien brocade weaving cooperative, by 2010, the cooperative had developed into the Hoa Tien Brocade Cooperative with 60 members (at that time, it was 54), with Ms. Sam Thi Bich as the cooperative's director. In 2019, the Hoa Tien Brocade Weaving Village Cooperative had 3 products - scarves, skirts, and tablecloths - that achieved 4-star OCOP certification. Throughout its operation, the cooperative has achieved many outstanding accomplishments and received numerous Certificates of Merit and Awards from various levels.

Passing the torch to future generations.

As the leader of the cooperative, Ms. Sam Thi Bich has continuously strived to find markets, contacting agents and retail stores in various provinces and cities to supply products; participating in training courses and actively teaching the craft to women in the former district; inviting women in the village and commune to restore looms and join the cooperative; establishing a loan group to expand the production scale of the Hoa Tien weaving group in a more professional direction... Ms. Bich also requires the women to hone their skills, be meticulous and creative in producing brocade products; and strive to design products that are both beautiful and suit customer tastes. Thanks to this, the Hoa Tien Brocade Cooperative has hundreds of designs and patterns, along with many different types of products ranging from brocade fabrics, clothing, bedsheets, tablecloths to unique bags, wallets, ties, scarves, and headwear.

Ms. Sam Thi Bich herself has always been a shining example of learning, working, and creativity. Whenever she has free time, she travels throughout the villages of the former Quy Chau district and other localities to meet with artisans and experienced elders in brocade products to learn more about unique weaving techniques, patterns, and designs favored by customers. She actively produces beautiful brocade products and enters them into competitions and exhibitions, winning numerous awards at the Vietnamese Handicraft Product Competitions organized by the former Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, etc., thereby contributing to the introduction and promotion of Hoa Tien brocade products. In addition, her brocade products received a Certificate of Outstanding Rural Industrial Product at the provincial and Northern region level in 2016. Awarded first prize for outstanding rural product at the provincial and national levels in 2017 (by the Ministry of Industry and Trade).

During her work, production, and business activities, Ms. Sam Thi Bich received numerous Certificates of Merit and Commendations from the commune, district, province, the Vietnam Handicraft Village Association, the Vietnam Association of Farms and Agricultural Enterprises, the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance, and the former Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development... for her outstanding achievements in the patriotic emulation movement and other fields. In 2016, Ms. Bich also received a Certificate of Skilled Craftsman; in 2018, she was certified as an Artisan.

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I am very happy to receive the Certificates of Merit and Commendations, but what makes me happiest is that I have made positive contributions to preserving and developing the traditional cultural identity of the Thai people, while also contributing to creating jobs and increasing income for women in Chau Tien commune, ensuring social security in the locality. At this time, the average income of each cooperative member reaches 4.5-5 million VND/month.

Artisan Sam Thi Bich

The resurgence of brocade weaving in Chau Tien has encouraged and motivated many other localities in the province to promote the restoration and development of brocade weaving villages. Currently, Nghe An province has quite a few recognized brocade weaving villages. And recently, on June 3, 2025, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism officially decided to include the brocade weaving craft of the Thai people in Nghe An province in the National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage, under the category of traditional crafts. Ms. Sam Thi Bich is very happy that her ethnic group's traditional craft has become a National Intangible Cultural Heritage: Brocade weaving becoming a heritage has created more favorable conditions for preserving and promoting the craft in conjunction with the development of tourism and the local socio-economic development in the new era.

According to Ms. Bich, in the last five years, Hoa Tien brocade in particular and Nghe An in general have been facing difficulties due to the saturation of supply and demand, with products selling slowly and facing competition from "fake brocade" fabrics. Furthermore, there is the worry that young people will not pursue the craft because the allure of domestic and international industrial zones outweighs the benefits of the loom. The decision of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has helped elevate brocade. Brocade is no longer just a purely commercial product but also a tourism product, and through tourism, brocade will continue to reach friends near and far.

It is known that for a long time, Ms. Sam Thi Bich has been quietly working to rekindle a love for brocade among young people and turn brocade and the brocade weaving process into a tourism product.

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In the activities of local Thai cultural clubs, artisan Sam Thi Bich has been very active in teaching traditional cultural values ​​to the younger generation, especially the pride in the local brocade weaving. Alongside this, artisan Sam Thi Bich and her daughter have established a homestay right in the village and are currently expanding its scale. At the homestay, artisan Sam Thi Bich actively demonstrates brocade weaving, introduces and promotes the cooperative's products to tourists. This is an excellent way to preserve and promote the value of traditional brocade weaving.

Mr. Tran Viet Duc – Vice Chairman of Chau Tien Commune People's Committee