Talented carpenter Nam Loc

(Baonghean) - For nearly half a decade now, the craftsmanship of the carpenters of Nam Loc commune, Nam Dan district has been famous throughout the region. Solid, sturdy stilt houses; elaborate wooden houses; rafters, rafters of churches, temples, shrines with sophisticated carvings... are all made by the talented hands of Nam Loc carpenters...

Nam Loc Commune, located next to the Lam River, is a small and densely populated commune, so hunger and poverty were always present. In the past, besides catching fish from the river, the main occupation of Nam Loc people was farming. Carpentry was introduced to the village in the mid-1960s when the Vinh Wood Factory was evacuated to the area. At that time, the US began to escalate its bombing of the North, and the war was very fierce. To ensure safety, the workers of the wood factory ate, lived, and worked in people's houses, thanks to the protection of the people in the area. The wood factory also brought a breath of fresh air to the area, and the happiest were probably the children because for the first time they knew about saws, about massive boats, about what a dui and a chisel were. Many young men in the village were also lucky enough to be selected to work as workers, initially getting acquainted with the carpentry profession. Recalling those days, Mr. Nguyen Van Hiep (Hamlet 4) - one of the most "veteran" workers in the area said: At that time, there were 2 shipbuilding workshops in the commune, one at Ba Bang wharf, one at Ong Huu wharf. Every time we young people came back from swimming in the river, we would sneak into the workshop to watch the workers chiseling and tapping. Sometimes, the uncles even let us practice sawing...

Mr. Nguyen Van Duc (left) with workers in the carpentry workshop.

With skillful and hard-working hands, the people in the area gradually became familiar with carpentry. In the village, there was Mr. Ty - a Vietnamese expatriate who returned from Thailand. He went to faraway areas such as Tan Ky and Tuong Duong to find wood. His trips to the forest also brought the villagers many orders, most of which were to build stilt houses for the Thai, Thanh and Tho ethnic groups. The stilt house making profession of the people of Nam Loc also started from that day.

The job of building stilt houses at that time was a lot of work but extremely hard. Maybe that's why carpentry in Nghe An is not rare, but when it comes to building stilt houses, not every place can do it. Pursuing the job of building stilt houses since he was 19 or 20 years old, Nguyen Van Duc said: Every time we received an order in Tuong Duong, we had to wake up at dawn. It took us more than a day by bus to get to Hoa Binh Town (Tuong Duong). Once there, we had to walk to remote communes. Sometimes it took us 2-3 days to get there. Building a stilt house, even a complicated one, took nearly 3 months. After nearly 90 days away from home, everyone missed home... The scariest thing was when we got sick, because at that time, travel conditions were difficult, and basic healthcare was not yet developed... Only by traveling a lot can we truly understand the pain of malaria. Many of us knew we were sick but had to grit our teeth and endure, knowing that to take a sick person to town, the transportation fee was almost 1 tael of gold. In the village, there were people who had to die in the forest because they could not be rescued in time. Mr. Duong himself once had a near-death experience due to malaria.

Life has developed, up to now Nam Loc commune has more than 150 households doing the profession, of which the most are in hamlet 4 - the all-Catholic hamlet with more than 130 households doing carpentry. One thing that the people are very proud of is that although the number of people building stilt houses is decreasing, in Nghe An, the most beautiful and elaborate stilt houses are still built by Nam Loc carpenters. Nam Loc people are also very sensitive, when the demand for building stilt houses decreases, they switch to building wooden houses and churches. Coming to Nam Loc, it is not strange to hear stories about billion-dollar projects that were elaborately carved by the talented hands of Nam Loc carpenters... Many famous projects in Nghi Dien, Nghi Kieu, Thanh Chuong... were also undertaken by Nam Loc carpenters. Not only traveling within the province, Nam Loc carpenters also bring their profession to the South, the North, to Laos, Malaysia, and Cambodia. Mr. Cao Ngoc Lien - Secretary of Hamlet 4 said: Currently, there are many groups of workers in the hamlet and they work hard all year round in all parts of the country. The salary of carpenters is also quite high, with the main worker earning an average of 10 - 12 million VND/month, and the assistant worker earning 5 - 6 million VND/month. Mr. Cao Ngoc Hung's son, just over 30 years old, also started from the carpentry profession and has now developed it, bringing nearly 20 people in the village to Laos to open a workshop, earning a stable income. The whole commune has 183 households, but only 9 are poor, the rest are quite rich, of which 30% are rich. It is also very admirable that the people of Hamlet 4 are very united, do not hide their profession but on the contrary are very conscious of passing on their profession. The carpentry profession has changed our whole village, creating a brand for the people in the village...

Article and photos:My Ha