Royal boats for Hue Festival 2008 were built in Nghe An.
(Baonghean.vn) -The boat was ordered by the Central Cultural Equipment and Relics Restoration Joint Stock Company (under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism) to be built by Hai Chau Shipbuilding Company (Nghe An) from January to May 21, 2008. This boat was introduced to tourists during the Hue Festival 2008.
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According to Mr. Ho Huu Hanh, commander of the royal boat project: "It can be affirmed that this is the largest royal boat made entirely of wood in Southeast Asia. Southeast Asian countries all have models of royal boats, but most of them are made of cast iron and corrugated iron, very few have wooden hulls."
With a total investment of 3.5 billion VND, the boat is built entirely of wood, 27m long, 7.2m wide, 4.2m high above the water, including one floor and a roof with railings. The wood used to build the boat is tau wood (inner layer) and sao wood (outer layer). These are the two types of wood that can withstand the water environment best today. The patterns on the boat are made of kien kien wood (not damaged by sun, rain and humidity) based on motifs in the architectural style of the Nguyen Dynasty found in mausoleums, royal palaces, and temples such as dragons at Tu Duc Tomb, Minh Mang Tomb... The bow and the back are decorated with dragons and tigers. The entire boat, including the railing system and the hammock door, are all painted with gold using traditional lacquer techniques by a professional team consisting of students of the founder of the lacquer craft village in Hue, painter Do Ky Hoang... On the boat there are restrooms, kitchens, resting rooms, and a rooftop for tourists to admire the Perfume River. The boat has enough space to carry 120 people at the same time; the main compartment alone is 70m wide.2can accommodate 60 people to enjoy culinary art while watching Hue Royal Music performance. The most special thing is that this boat is completely built by traditional manual methods.
The royal boat made entirely of wood, ordered by the Hue Monuments Conservation Center, arrived at Thuan An port, Thua Thien - Hue province, at 9:00 a.m. on May 27, after more than 10 hours of traveling by water from Vinh City.
Article and photos: Tran Hai
