The person who "searched for agarwood to carve a statue" of Nguyen Du

(Baonghean) - I met Nguyen Le Huy - a person who has received "special attention" from the press recently because he is the owner of the largest statue of Nguyen Du made of rosewood that has just been completed.

When Kieu's verse comes into fate

He appeared to be “miserable” because… “suddenly became famous”. He said, he “searched for agarwood to carve a statue” (a word used by a friend of Le Huy in a poem sent to him) simply to express the wish of a Vietnamese who loves Vietnamese culture and wants to honor Vietnamese celebrities. But with Mr. Nguyen - not only him but with any Vietnamese who does not know, does not admire, does not know at least a few lines of Kieu?

The statue of Nguyen Du was carved from a hickory tree root.

Nguyen Le Huy surprised me, first of all because his job is "purely economic" and "has nothing to do with culture and art" as he confessed (Huy is currently working at TH Milk Joint Stock Company in Nghia Dan). Second, the owner of this famous wooden statue was very hesitant to answer about himself, about the journey to create this work, only when he knew that I had known the poet Nguyen Duy Nang - his father for a long time, did he really feel comfortable sharing. Furthermore, Le Huy is also a passionate collector of antiques. He has spent most of his free time and money pursuing that passion, even opening an antique cafe right in Nghi Xuan (Ha Tinh), next to the Nguyen Du relic. Another surprise is that he is the 8th generation son-in-law of Nguyen. The verse that his father gave his son on his wedding day seemed to not only tell the story of him marrying a girl from the Nguyen Tien Dien family, but it also seemed to "work" on his life, bringing about things that could only be explained by "fate". That verse resolved all my surprises about the slender man sitting silently with a gentle smile in front of me: "Betel and areca nut marry a verse of Kieu"

Meet the "fate"

Nguyen Le Huy told me that to have a statue of Mr. Nguyen, there must be enough fate. The statue was not made by his own wish alone. It was the effort, the tireless effort, the joy, the expectation of many people. Of course, if he had not unexpectedly encountered and owned a giant hunchback root (from a hunchback tree that is easily up to a thousand years old) that had been sleeping under the soil and rocks of Western Nghe An for so many years, the determination to make a statue would have been difficult to form in him. A guy who, whenever he left work, would diligently search for antiques like him, one day "by some chance" he came across a hunchback root, and immediately, he thought of something unique, which was to carve a statue of a famous Vietnamese person.

The original hunchback of the incense tree when it was still in its original shape.

The reason why he said it was different was because, when he had that block of wood (3.5m long, 2.5m wide), many people thought of cutting it up to make dozens of sets of beds or carving commercial statues, which could easily be sold for a lot of money. As soon as he brought that block of wood back to Vinh (Le Huy's house on Mai Hac De street) in April last year, he also received a lot of advice like that. But he was determined, such a large and precious block of wood, it needed to be used to carve famous people of his country. "Statues in our country, especially commercial statues, often tend to be...extroverted, carving characters unfamiliar to our country, foreign mascots. That's something I think about and feel sad about," said Le Huy.

"The character" that he thinks about the most is Mr. Nguyen. "I think about the Kieu verses that my grandmother and mother sang to me. How many Vietnamese people grew up and absorbed those lullabies. I think about him, a mandarin, a writer who was deeply concerned about life... And how lucky, when I told him about my idea, all the most important people in my life supported me wholeheartedly. Not only with words, with respect, but also with all the practical actions to make the statue of Mr. Nguyen come into being."

Journey of carving statue of Nguyen Du

It was his father who said: "If you decide to do so, I support you", and then he was happy and sad with each chisel and plane stroke. His mother was the one who cooked for months to feed the statue makers. His wife, who raised the children by herself, took care of the housework so that her husband could work far away from home and even saved his salary for making statues. His friends, descendants of the Nguyen Tien Dien family, the managers of the Nguyen relic helped him with ideas and documents... In particular, the presence of a number of artisans and sculptors whose names he did not forget to mention in his story: Vu Van Bay (Bac Ninh), Tran Minh Chau. It was sculptor Tran Minh Chau who always came to his house every week, pondering over each carving, each appearance gradually appearing under the craftsman's hands...

Satisfy your desire

In April 2014, he bought a hunchbacked incense tree, and in September of that year, Nguyen Le Huy began his journey to find a statue model and a craftsman. He surveyed everywhere, went to areas with many skilled craftsmen, and asked for opinions from many sculptors and artisans. Bac Ninh, Bac Giang, Nam Dinh, Hai Phong...

Mr. Nguyen Le Huy (far right) next to the statue of Nguyen Du

When he was asked to make a statue, many people were surprised by his idea. A skinny, frail guy, who did not look like a “rich man”, intended to use a whole block of precious wood and spend his own money to carve a statue of Nguyen Du just to satisfy his admiration. Then, among the many craftsmen going back and forth in the craft villages, some were busy, some lacked enthusiasm, so Huy was not satisfied with any of them. Until one day, he went to a wood workshop of a young craftsman in Bac Giang. After hearing his idea, the craftsman said: “Everyone in my village knows the Tale of Kieu, but no one has thought of carving a statue of Nguyen Du. A statue of Nguyen has been in my mind for a long time…”. Then, the craftsman closed the workshop for several months, and with a group of craftsmen packed their bags and went to Nghe An to make a statue of Nguyen.

The statue has very delicate and sharp details.

The carvings of the statue

From May 19, 2015, in the workshop that Huy borrowed near his house, the workers started to survey and carve the model statue. After 15 days, the model statue was completed to a satisfactory standard, and then the process of making the real statue began. The block of rosewood took shape and stature every day, along with the wishes of Huy and many others. "The most worrying thing is how to carve the statue to look like Mr. Nguyen, to carry the spirit and soul of Mr. Nguyen" - Le Huy shared. He also said that what he asked the carver to carve the statue of Mr. Nguyen was not speed in the work, but dedication. "When you feel truly inspired and truly dedicated, then do it!" - That is what Le Huy often told the carver.

By September 12, after 4 months of waiting and suspense, the statue of Nguyen Du had completed its final stage. The statue is over 3m high (including the base), with a maximum diameter of 2m.

Cultivating cultural resources

There was something, close to happiness, that burst into the heart of the 45-year-old man Nguyen Le Huy. Before his eyes, on the precious wood grain that had been silent for thousands of years in the deep forest, in the heart of the land, appeared a face, a figure... Nguyen Du was sitting there, holding a pen, his eyes looking into the distance. It was indeed Nguyen Du, his face somewhat resembling his great-grandfather Toi (grandson of Nguyen whose image is still preserved in An Tinh Co Luc), and Mr. Nguyen Minh (grandson of Nguyen who currently lives in Tien Dien)... Only that demeanor, those eyes seemed to want to look deeply into "a hundred years in the human world" with so many painful questions that still echo today? This statue is expected to have the opportunity to be displayed at the Cultural Tourism Week celebrating the 250th anniversary of Nguyen Du's birth, taking place at the special national relic - Great Poet Nguyen Du Memorial Site in Nghi Xuan, Ha Tinh this coming November.

Complete statue of Great Poet Nguyen Du

Le Huy told me about his fate in life, about the poem his father wrote when he, a young man from Cua Hoi (Nghe An), sought to marry a girl from Tien Dien, which included the line: "Betel and areca nut to marry a verse of Kieu". About the poems and songs that raised him, about the passions he pursued. "I am just an ordinary Vietnamese, a Vietnamese who loves Vietnamese culture passionately, and wishes to preserve it forever". And I would like to end this article with a comment from Mr. Ho Bach Khoa - Head of the management board of the Great Poet Nguyen Du Memorial Site, whom we were lucky to meet right at Mr. Le Huy's house about this "ordinary Vietnamese": In Nguyen Le Huy, I encountered a cultural undercurrent, a special cultural spirit. And it is this ordinary person who makes us suddenly look back at many cultural values ​​that are being covered up and forgotten".

Article: Thuy Vinh, photo: Quang Dung