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| Mr. Vo Huu An with his work “Nine dragons fighting for a pearl” |
Finding his calling
Late in the afternoon, I visited Mr. Vo Huu An’s carpentry workshop nestled inside the Citadel. He and his wife had just returned from the 21st Vietnam Craft Village Fair in Hanoi. Although the trip was long, they returned with joy, bringing several new orders and more opportunities to take Hue’s exquisite products further afield.
In the workshop, intricately carved wooden furniture sets - day beds, display cabinets, altar cabinets, platform beds, wall paintings, tables, and chairs - lay scattered about as if waiting for the moment to enter their new lives. Several products had been carefully wrapped, ready to leave the workshop.
“The carved details on the products are all done entirely by hand. People love my products because they’re absolutely handmade. Each piece is unique; no two are alike. This is different from machine-carved products, where hundreds are all from the same mold,” shared Mr. An while his eyes lighting up with the pride of a craftsman devoted to his trade.
Products carved entirely by hand always require extensive time, meticulousness, and high perseverance. Consequently, their prices are higher too. Mr. An said that among the patterns he commonly carves, the most prominent are still dragons, unicorns, tortoises, phoenixes, the Eight Immortals, plum, orchid, chrysanthemum, bamboo, peach, pear, pomegranate, etc. These are the featured cultural symbols of East Asia, closely associated with Hue’s Imperial court spirit.
Coming to the craft in 1990, when he was a young man not yet 16, he has now spent 35 years living with the sounds of chisels and planers. He shared that the material he usually chooses for crafting is andoung. This wood is durable, resistant to termites, less prone to warping, and has beautiful grain and fine texture, which is suitable for delicate carving.
The andoung wood has a light yellow color, but to become products with an ancient and elegant appearance, craftsmen must go through a meticulous process. First, the wood must be sun-dried sufficiently to limit warping and cracking. After crafting is complete, each grain of wood is coated with a layer of lime. In just 30 minutes, the wood color shifts to a warm, deep brown tone. If soaked longer, the color becomes even richer. It requires many more steps to make the product surface beautifully glossy and vibrant, from applying primer coats, careful sanding, and finally applying lacquer to highlight the wood grain, creating shine and depth.
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| Mr. An’s pride after many years in the craft, is the honor of participating in the restoration and reconstruction of many works in the historical sites of the Imperial City |
Pride that remains
If you ask Mr. An what makes him most proud after more than three decades devoted to the craft, he doesn’t need to think long - It’s being able to contribute to the restoration of Hue’s historical sites, works that carry the soul of the Ancient Capital.
Since 2007, his footsteps have wandered throughout the moss-covered courtyards of various monuments, present in many restoration projects. Many works he has restored, such as mirror paintings, ladies’ palanquins, Buddhist scripture tables, lanterns, interior furniture sets, platform beds, horizontal lacquered boards... are now present in the solemn spaces of Dien Tho Residence, Thai Binh Pavilion, Trieu To Temple, and Thai Hoa Palace in the Imperial City. At Gia Long Tomb, the incense altars, offering tables, gong pedestals, picture frames... were all painstakingly crafted by Mr. An.
Alongside practicing his craft, Mr. An is also dedicated to passing the flame to many classes of students. Many of them have now become skilled craftsmen, capable of standing firm in the profession. During peak times, Mr. An’s carpentry workshop sometimes provides work for more than a dozen workers.
He shared that in recent years, the appreciation for handcrafted carved wooden items with old-world charm has been gradually regaining popularity. He believes that handcrafted wooden items can last hundreds of years, passed from one generation to the next as a spiritual heritage. These are values that industrial products can hardly possess.