Hanoi authorities on Friday held a ceremony at the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long to welcome the inclusion of Chuyen My mother-of-pearl lacquerware village and Son Dong lacquer sculpture village into the network. Bat Trang ceramic village and Van Phuc silk village joined in 2024.
Chuyen My lacquerware village
Chuyen My, known for mother-of-pearl inlay and lacquerware, dates back nearly 1,000 years to the 11th century. The craft is concentrated in several hamlets and has long been intertwined with local life.
Many Chuyen My artisans were once summoned to the imperial court in Hue to create palace decorations. Today, the village has 20 state-recognised artisans and thousands of skilled workers producing furniture, decorative paintings and other handicrafts.
Son Dong sculpture village
Son Dong Village, known for lacquer sculpture and worship objects, has a history spanning more than 800 years. The craft declined during the Vietnam War and subsidy era before being revived in 1983 by artisans Nguyen Chi Dau and Nguyen Duc Cuong.
More than 80 per cent of households in the village rely on handicrafts for their livelihood. The village has 26 state-recognised artisans, around 40 master craftsmen and more than 4,000 workers across nearly 700 households and 10 companies.
Son Dong artisans are known for carving religious statues without pre-made models and creating lifelike wooden portraits from photographs. Their work can be found at major Hanoi landmarks, including the Temple of Literature, Khue Van Cac, Ngoc Son Temple and One Pillar Pagoda.
Bat Trang ceramics village
Bat Trang, one of Vietnam’s oldest and most famous ceramic villages, was established between the 14th and 15th centuries after pottery-making families migrated from Ninh Binh to the area now known as Bat Trang.
Bat Trang flourished between the 15th and 17th centuries, exporting ceramics across Asia before declining due to political and economic upheavals. The craft revived in the 1960s and later expanded under Vietnam’s market reforms, gaining international recognition for its high-temperature firing techniques, traditional glazes and intricate hand-crafted designs.
Van Phuc silk village
Van Phuc silk village in Ha Dong is among Vietnam’s best-known silk weaving centres, with a history dating back more than 1,000 years. Under the Nguyen Dynasty, Ha Dong silk was selected for royal garments.
Van Phuc silk gained international recognition at the 1931 Marseille Fair in France, where it was described as the finest craftsmanship in Indochina. Its products were later exported mainly to Eastern Europe before expanding to wider global markets from the 1990s onward.
Hanoi is home to around 1,350 craft villages, including 337 officially recognised traditional villages producing ceramics, silk, wood carvings, lacquerware and embroidery. Authorities said the sector plays a key role in preserving the capital’s cultural identity and promoting its image abroad.