Carpenter of Thuong village

(Baonghean) -Thuong Village is located in the Ngang beach area, Quynh Luu district. The village is located between the Mai Giang River and the East Sea, which roars day and night. Thuong Village is small and densely populated, so our ancestors did many jobs to make a living: plowing fields, drying salt, raising silkworms, cocooning silk, weaving, masonry, carpentry, sawing, pushing shrimp, fishing...

Every year, after two cropping seasons, men with chisels and saws go to the villages to work for hire, rebuilding walls, repairing doors, tables, chairs, etc. Some families have been carpenters for generations, passing the carpentry profession on to their children. There are communal houses, temples, pagodas, and churches built by the craftsmen of the Upper Village hundreds of years ago, and now they are classified by the State as historical and cultural relics.

The Upper Temple in Phu Nghia village was built on Eo Nay land, Chan Gia forest in 1113, the 40th year of Canh Hung reign, with a three-story architecture: the harem house, the main house, and the singing and dancing house. The Upper Temple has many parallel sentences and large characters, but they were lost and damaged during two wars.

The Upper Temple was repaired by Mr. Pho Tu nearly 100 years ago. The people of the Upper Village praised the craftsmanship of Mr. Pho Tu who had previously restored the Upper Temple, Tho Vuc communal house and the Ho family church in Quynh village, which were recognized by the State as historical and cultural relics. Mr. Pho Tu's son is Mr. Bich Khue, his son-in-law is Mr. Duc Tuan, his grandchildren: Mr. Ha, Mr. Quang, Mr. Canh... after completing their military service, returned to follow their father's footsteps, buying machinery... and setting up a carpentry workshop.

Implementing the resolution of the Commune Party Committee "getting rich from a craft village", the Youth Union opened a carpentry class for the young generation. After two years, dozens of workers were trained, forming a craft village with over 300 establishments for sawing, sawing wood, making civil carpentry products, building and repairing fishing boats... Each establishment employs 5 to 10 workers. There are two or three brothers who contribute capital to set up a carpentry workshop like Mr. Ho Huu and Mr. Ho Chung. There are people who have returned from demobilization to borrow capital to build workshops like Mr. Son, Mr. Quang, Mr. Dung... to improve the quality of products and goods. Mr. Son is a skilled carpenter in the village. When the Provincial Party Secretary Truong Dinh Tuyen and other comrades in the Quynh Luu District Party Committee visited and encouraged Mr. Son to make fine art wooden products for export, he provided meals for those who came to learn the craft, and those who were skilled in the craft were paid according to their level of workmanship. If they wanted to start a business or set up a workshop, he would help them with capital to buy tools. Chinh Mai carpentry workshop, with too little land, rented nearly 5,000 square meters of land from Thuong village in Eo Nay. He built two workshops, installed band saws, circular saws, planers, milling machines, lathes... with five or six workers working.

The facilities of Suon Bac, Nghia Nho, Minh Lam, Ngo Thuy, Khuong Lo, etc. still build large ships, large fishing boats, or produce fine art wooden products such as sofas, cabinets, beds, etc., which are favored by customers.

Thuong village's carpentry has a long-standing reputation. Carpenters can not only build four-pillar houses, majestic houses, and ancient three-pillar houses, but also build communal houses, temples, pagodas, shrines, and build boats to cross the East Sea. Thuong village's carpenters can also carve side doors, horizontal lacquered boards, make sacrificial objects such as incense tables, altars, and carve statues of gods and Buddhas... Thuong village's carpentry has been recognized by Nghe An Provincial People's Committee as "Phu Nghia Fine Art Civil Carpentry Village" (Decision No. 1956/UBND, March 20, 2005).

The carpenters of Thuong village are also organized into guilds and associations like other localities. Each guild and association has from 5 to 10 workers. The skilled carpenters in the guild and association who receive projects and call workers to work are called master carpenters or assistant carpenters. Until now, it is not known who brought carpentry to Thuong village and passed it on to the people in which year. But at the beginning of the year, the carpenters of Thuong village often hold a ceremony to worship the carpentry saint Lu Ban, also known as Lu Cong Du.

Converting land, changing crops, and reassigning labor, Thuong village has formed a civil craft village covering 11 hamlets and villages, employing nearly a thousand workers, and more so in the off-season months and the months before Tet. This profession annually brings in 22 to 25 billion VND for the locality. In the first 6 months of 2013 alone, the revenue reached over 27 billion VND... People's lives are increasingly improved, families are buying all the necessary amenities for their lives; investing in dozens of trucks, passenger cars, 4-seat cars... All 11 hamlets and villages have cultural houses and stadiums. Kindergartens, primary schools, secondary schools, and medical stations all meet national standards. Coming to Thuong village, the sounds of saws, planers, milling machines, smooth boring machines... blend together like a warm, happy melody of a craft village.

Tu An