Hanoi (VNA) - Ha Thai lacquerware is now enjoying a newvitality and has established a firm position among the famous craft villages inVietnam, with most of its products being exported.

The Ha Thai lacquerware craft village is located right next to Highway1A, in Thuong Tin district of Hanoi. It was formerly named Cu Trang, butrenamed as Dong Thai in 1870 and Ha Thai in the early years of the 20th century.

History has it that the trade started in Ha Thai in the 17th century. The village is not the cradle of the trade but famous for itscontingent of craftsmen.

In the first part of the 1930’s, Vietnam’s first painters studying atthe Indochina Fine Arts College applied new colour materials like egg and snailshell and bamboo, and especially the polishing technique, to the art, thus creatingreally valuable artworks.

Since 1955, the Ha Thai lacquerware craft village has experiencedvarious ups and downs, but they in general have created a sustainabledevelopment. Since the start of the market mechanism, the village has seenanother development, mostly in the household scale. Ha Thai village is home to800 households, 90 percent of them engage in the job with about 1,600 workhandsand thousands of satellite labourers from nearby villages.

Ha Thai was recognised by the People’s Committee of the former Ha Tayprovince as a craft village in 2001. Each year, the village turns out millionsof items. It has affirmed its trademark thanks to not only its products’prestige, quality and aesthetic values but also the skill and creativeness ofthe craftsmen.

The stability of the craft village, together with the preservation ofthe material and spiritual cultural values of the products, has helped Ha Thaibecome one of the two craft villages in the country selected by the JapanInternational Cooperation Agency (JICA) as strategic points for sustainablecraft village development to 2010.

Besides traditional products, Ha Thai craftsmen have also createdthousands of new ones which attract and meet the requirement of customersinside and outside the country, such as bowls, plates, vases, and paintings.The main raw materials used for Ha Thai lacquerware products are wood, bambooand rattan, and most recently composite and chinaware. Besides inheriting thetraditional experiences passed down by their forefathers, current Ha Thaicraftsmen are developing new materials and colours as well as applying newtechniques for their products.

Currently, Ha Thai lacquerware products are meeting requirements ofcustomers not only inside but also outside the country. For many years, Ha Thaihas been a prestigious address among foreign customers. Its products have foundtheir ways to many countries in the world such as the UK, France, Russia, theUS, Spain, Australia, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, etc. Annual revenueof each household averages about 150 million VND (6,500 USD), especially thatof major enterprises like My Thai and Thanh Son amounts to billions of VND.

Along with the tradition of a craft village more than 200 years old, HaThai is now enjoying a new vitality and has established a firm foothold amongthe famous craft villages in Vietnam, with most of its products being forexport to many countries in the world. Ha Thai lacquerware products have beenput on show at many handicraft and fine art exhibitions and fairs inside andoutside the country, and won admiration from visitors./.