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Winding roads on the mountain slopes of the rocky plateau lead to Lao Xa, Sung La commune, Dong Van district, Ha Giang province. The small, pristine, and dreamy village of Lao Xa is located 6 km from the center of Sung La, nestled among cliffs, and currently has about 100 households. In spring, Lao Xa is bathed in the pink and white hues of peach and plum blossoms. Interspersed among them are houses with gleaming yellow earthen walls, yin-yang tiled roofs, and solemn stone fences, hidden in the gray smoke rising from the roofs. Lao Xa is the cradle of the traditional silver crafting of the H'Mong people.
In Lao Xa village, whenever you go to a house and hear a knocking sound,clackThen they knew it was the house of Mr. Mua Se Sinh - a family still maintaining the silversmithing trade. Sometimes rapid, sometimes slow and steady, those sounds have become familiar at Mr. Sinh's house for hundreds of years. The soundclack clack clackThe number of weddings becomes even higher during each H'Mong wedding season (from the 10th lunar month until after Tet), when the demand for jewelry among the people increases significantly.
Mr. Mua Se Sinh has been doing this job for over 50 years.
Mr. Sinh's family has nine silversmiths, who are his brothers and children.
The family of Mr. Mua Sè Sính has been making silver for six generations, a tradition passed down from father to son. Mr. Sính's family has nine artisans, including his brothers and children. At the over 100-year-old silver forge, from a small, elderly man over 70 to young men in their twenties, everyone is focused, their eyes intently focused, their hands meticulously and enthusiastically shaping their creations. Currently, only a few families in Lao Xa village still maintain this craft.
Mr. Sinh recalled that since he was a 14-year-old boy, his father had taught him the techniques of making silver jewelry. To this day, he has been involved with silver bracelets and rings for over 50 years.
For over 50 seasons of peach blossoms blooming in this small border village, Mr. Sinh's hands have shaped countless items, carving each petal and leaf onto countless pieces of jewelry. Even today, those hands, though wrinkled and thin, continue to tirelessly create simple yet exquisite pieces of jewelry.
The scraps of silver go through many processes to become beautiful pieces of jewelry.
The process of carving patterns requires meticulous attention to detail.
The materials used to make silver must be pure and free of impurities.
A set of carving tools for decorative patterns.
To create a piece of silver jewelry, artisans must go through many steps, each requiring skill. The selection of materials is crucial because only pure silver, free from impurities, can produce a beautiful, smooth finished product. Previously, Mr. Sinh used silver coins with floral designs, but this type of silver is now very rare, so his family usually has to use ordinary silver.
First, pieces of silver are melted and poured into molds to create shapes. Then, the silver bars are hammered to create rough shapes and details, before being engraved. The silver is engraved entirely by hand with meticulous care and precision. The motifs on Lao Xa's silver products mainly depict human life, such as bees, butterflies, flowers, and pretty little bells. Finally, the finished products are polished before being delivered to customers.
The patterns are entirely hand-carved.
In the corner of Mr. Sinh's house, there was a jumble of tools: bellows, molds, various rolling tools, hammers, pliers, and a set of chisels for carving patterns. Each person was assigned to a specific stage of production to make the products as quickly as possible. Nowadays, in addition to these crude hand tools, artisans are assisted by machinery such as rolling and stamping machines, which save time and effort, as well as create more beautiful and higher-quality products.
Besides manual processes, the silver production process has been assisted by machinery.
The time it takes to create an item depends on its size, complexity, and the intricacy of the design. Therefore, the price of these items also varies. Smaller pieces like rings and bracelets usually take a morning to complete. More elaborate pieces, such as necklaces, can take several days or even a month to finish.
Mr. Sinh's silver products are very diverse, ranging from necklaces, bracelets, rings, earrings to pendants, anklets, and more. It's impossible to count how many such pieces of jewelry he has made over the past 50 years.
Mr. Sinh's children continued to learn the techniques from their father.
During the busiest periods, Mr. Sinh's house is always bustling with people. Some come from other districts like Yen Minh, Quan Ba, and Meo Vac to buy silver for jewelry. There are also tourists who come to learn about the beauty of the H'Mong people, and then take home bracelets and rings as souvenirs – like taking home a piece of the soul of the place they visited. Thanks to this, the silver-making craft helps increase the income of the villagers; each family involved in silver-making can earn up to 50 million VND per year.
Silver jewelry is a distinctive cultural feature of the H'Mong people.
Lao Xa silver bracelets gleam in the markets of Dong Van and surrounding areas. They jingle on the wrists of H'Mong girls in their brightly colored dresses as they walk along the village roads.
Silver bracelets are traditional jewelry that plays an important role in the lives of the H'Mong people. When a H'Mong girl gets married, her parents give her silver bracelets as a dowry. These silver jewelry pieces are not only decorative and beautifying, but are also associated with significant events in the lives of women in this region.
