Sinh painting village reflects Hue culture

A painting fair is annually held each Tet holiday season in communal houses in the village, which have always drawn large numbers of tourists. Nowadays, more than 30 families are working feverishly making last minute preparations for the fair. The village’s paintings mainly reflect an aspiration for a peaceful, happy and prosperous life and often depict the animals in people’s lives such as cows, pigs, dogs, cats and chickens. The painting is them covered with a layer of sticky rice paste (called ‘ho nep’) to protect it, which results in an amazingly long lasting sturdy finish.
They are making a printing paper from the bark of a tree called ‘Dzo’. The background paper is originally white. They then use natural materials, readily found in Vietnam, to change the colour of the paper to red, orange, pink, yellow or purple.In particular, the red colour is taken from earth of hills and mountains, the black colour is from coal of burned bamboo leaves and white colour is made from sea shells.
The most common themes for the paintings carry congratulatory meanings such as – ‘Honour-Prosperity’, ‘Spring Ritual’ or ‘Chicken Family’. Another subtheme centres on daily activities which include ‘Jealously’, ‘Playing flute’ or ‘Farmer and Water Buffalo’.