Within the context of this blog, we wish to share and spread the story of Tho Ha village, a fascinating one with a rich pottery tradition, alas almost entirely conjugated in the past tense. Tho Ha is built on a script of land slightly raised above river level, but outside the protective perimeter of the dike. Everywhere in Tho Ha, the traces of a more glorious past can be seen: the host of fine old public and private buildings, in particular the famous “Đình” and the “Đòan Minh” pagoda.
Getting there
If you come to the town of Bac Ninh by N1 Highway from Hanoi, it’s about 40 km away and it took about 1.5 hours by car. Look for a church on your right at a crossroad. At this intersection, turn left onto a street call Đường Thiên Đức , cross the railways tracks. After 800 m, turn right on Công Hâu and continue 2 km. You are travelling along the bank of the Cầu river, with Thổ Hà opposite, in the district called Xã Vạn An.
The Craft
As we have already mentioned, Tho Ha was once famous in the Northern Delta as a supplier of burial caskets, as well as of non-enameled ceramic products of a light brown or dark grey colour such as jars, vases or perfume-burners…
Since at least the 17th century (a native of Tho Ha claims that archaeologists have found traces of kilns dating back to the 9th century) until after the end of colonial period, Tho Ha was a very noted center for the production of ceramic items.
Tho Ha ever boasted at least 50 wood-fired kilns within a very dense urbanized space, but today only traces of old kilns remain – mainly “frog kilns” (lò cóc, literally toad-shaped ovens, the smallest and oldest type of kilns found here). There still remains one household in the village where, with the help of a small frog-kiln in their courtyard, they produce a small quantity of ceramic items. They are trying to revive ancestral know-how and to train other artisans in order to re-establish the village’s traditional activity. Nowadays, Tho Ha has changed and today it is famous for its “bánh đa” – small, very thin rice pancakes used for making spring roll.
Things to see
Even though there is practically no pottery production to be observed currently in Tho Ha. One of the greatest pleasure of a visit to the village is the beauty of the half light filtering through these translucent pancakes, put out to dry on bamboo racks, forming a delightful roof over alleyways no more than a metre wide. Racks of rice pancakes can also be found in front of the pagoda, on rooftops, balanced on walls, leaning against graves in the cemetery…Therefore, try to arrive at Tho Ha as early as possible in the afternoon or in the morning, on a dry day…and when the power is on, to admire this sight! The villagers start to take their racks of rice pancakes inside from 3 or 4 pm.
The communal house: If you walk straight ahead with the main ferry behind you, you will come almost directly upon the area of the village that contains most of the religious buildings and which splits the village in two. You must first cross the village marketplace, then a large open space lined with low buildings that have been recently renovated. The DINH is now right in front of you: one of the biggest in the whole Delta (27m long and 16m wide), it is really impressive by dint of its imposing size, its decorative details and its good state of preservation.
The Doan Minh pagoda: If you carry on futher through the village, you will come to the pagoda. Predating the communal house by about 60 years, it betrayes a strong Chinese influence, simillar in design to the super But Thap pagoda in Bac Ninh province. The imposing entry gate to the village, on the north west side, near the pagoda is worth to seeing as well.