The roads on the mountainside of the rocky plateau lead to Lao Xa, Sung La commune, Dong Van district, Ha Giang province. The small, wild and dreamy Lao Xa village is 6 km from the center of Sung La, nestled between the cliffs, and is currently home to about 100 households. In the spring, Lao Xa is filled with the pink and white colors of peach and plum blossoms. Interspersed among them are the corners of houses with golden walls, yin-yang tiled roofs, and silent stone fences, hidden in the gray smoke rising from the roofs. Lao Xa is the cradle of the traditional silver carving craft of the H'Mong people.
In Lao Xa village, whenever you go to a house, you hear a knocking sound.clackthen know that it is the house of Mr. Mua Se Sinh - a family that still maintains the silver making profession. Sometimes urgent, sometimes slow and steady, those sounds have become familiar at Mr. Sinh's house for hundreds of years. The soundclatterThe wedding season of the H'Mong people (from the 10th lunar month to after Tet) is even more crowded, which is when people's demand for jewelry increases.
Mr. Mua Se Sinh has been in the profession for more than 50 years.
Mr. Sinh's family has 9 silver artisans, who are his brothers and children.
Mr. Mua Se Sinh's family has been making silver for 6 generations. Mr. Sinh's family has 9 artisans, his brothers and children. At the silver furnace that is over 100 years old, from the small-bodied old man over 70 to the young men in their twenties, they are all attentive, their eyes full of concentration, their hands meticulously and enthusiastically shaping their "children". Currently, in Lao Xa village, there are only a few households still maintaining this profession.
Mr. Sinh recalls that since he was a 14-year-old boy, his father taught him the technique of making silver jewelry. Up to now, he has been attached to silver bracelets and rings for more than 50 years.
For more than 50 seasons of peach blossoms blooming in the small border village, Mr. Sinh’s hands have shaped countless objects, carved each petal, each leaf… into countless pieces of jewelry. Until now, those hands, though wrinkled and skinny, still tirelessly make simple jewelry.
Silver scraps go through many stages to become beautiful pieces of jewelry.
Engraving requires meticulousness.
Silver materials must be pure and free of impurities.
Patterned chisel set.
To make a piece of silver jewelry, artisans must perform many steps, each step requires skill. The selection of materials is very important because only pure silver without impurities will make the product beautiful and smooth. In the past, Mr. Sinh used silver coins with flower patterns to make them, but now this type of silver is very rare, the family often has to use ordinary silver.
First, the silver pieces are melted and then poured into molds. After that, the silver bars are hammered to create rough shapes, contours, and then carved. The silver is carved entirely by hand meticulously and delicately. The motifs on Lao Xa silver products mainly represent human life such as bees, butterflies, flowers, and pretty little bells... Finally, the finished products will be polished and returned to customers.
The pattern is completely hand carved.
In the corner of Mr. Sinh’s porch are a series of tools: bellows, molds, rolling tools, hammers, pliers and carving chisels. Each person is assigned a task to make the product as quickly as possible. Nowadays, in addition to crude manual tools, artisans are supported by machines such as rolling machines, stamping machines, etc. to help save time and effort as well as create more beautiful and high-quality products.
Besides manual steps, the silver production process has been assisted by machines.
The time it takes to make a piece depends on the size, difficulty, and intricacy of the design. And so the prices vary. Small pieces like rings and bracelets usually take a morning. More elaborate pieces like necklaces can take days or even months to complete.
Mr. Sinh's silver products are very diverse, from necklaces, bracelets, rings, earrings to pendants, necklaces, anklets... It is impossible to count how many pieces of jewelry he has made in the past 50 years.
Mr. Sinh's children continued to be taught techniques from their father.
During the busiest period, Mr. Sinh's house is always crowded with people. There are people from other districts such as Yen Minh, Quan Ba, Meo Vac... who come to buy silver to make jewelry. There are tourists who come to learn about the beauty of the H'Mong people, then bring back bracelets and rings as souvenirs - like bringing back a piece of the soul of the place they set foot in. Thanks to that, the silver making profession also helps increase the income of the people; each silver making household can earn up to 50 million VND/year.
Silver jewelry is a cultural characteristic of the H'Mong people.
Lao Xa silver bracelets sparkle at the markets in Dong Van and neighboring areas. Lao Xa silver bracelets jingle on the wrists of H'Mong girls in their colorful dresses on the village roads.
Silver bracelets are traditional jewelry that play an important role in the lives of the H'Mong people. When H'Mong girls get married, their parents give them silver bracelets as a dowry. Silver jewelry not only decorates and beautifies, but is also associated with important events in the lives of women here.
