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Weaving basket boat - old craft is a little bit left!
(
Update:
28/10/2019
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Mr. Phan Liem slowly groomed each bamboo fiber
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For a long time, when it comes to crafting basket boat, many people have been insisting that as long as fishermen go to the sea to catch seafood, they will still live. In fact, urban life, village encroachment, scarce raw materials, basket boat craft once famous in the coastal waters of Danang gradually fade, until now there are only three people ...
Stay with the job
Phan Liem, a fisherman (in Tho Quang ward, Son Tra district, Da Nang city), is over 70 years old and his skin is tanned when he has nearly 40 years of experience in weaving basket boat. Son Tra where he lives is a coastal area of Danang City. In the past, sand ran along the foot of the Son Tra peninsula where many fishermen engaged in fishing. In his memory, seafaring is an endless treasure of stories that seem to have no end. In that treasure of memories, the life of the seafarers, floating on the sea, cannot separate the basket boat, whether caught far or near shore.
Referring to the basket boat craft, Phan Liem's eyes look far away to the sea - where when the dawn comes, the wives sit on the sand waiting for the husband's boat to return, and when the distance from the shore a certain distance depends According to the water level, the basket boats became an auxiliary means to transfer fishing nets and raw fish and squid to the shore to bring them to the market. "Marine fishing, whether large or small, requires a basket boat during the fishing process," said Phan Liem.
Tho Quang beach now has a road named the talented general of the nation - Vo Nguyen Giap - running across in front of crowded tourists. Houses sprung up nicely after the plan. On the mooring side, medium and large capacity boats appeared more to replace the fragile boats of poverty. Many people quit the basket boat business to gain access to other higher income jobs. Manpower knitting accordingly with it. Only the posture of splitting bamboo baskets of old man Phan Liem is not changed.
Mr. Phan Liem said that it takes about 5 days to make a basket and sell it for 2 to 2.5 million VND. Subtracting the cost of purchasing raw materials, the daily wage earned about VND 200,000. “In the past, these coastal fishing villages were almost knit. Now that the needs of life have changed, making money is easier, so not many people are interested in this job of back pain, lumpy hands, "Mr. Phan Liem said. Asked at the age when you need a break, why are you still busy with the job ?, slowly polishing each bamboo fiber, he said: “Life is no longer struggling like the old days, but since the life of my father, the career has always been parallel. to support the family. The job has been from his father's life, hundreds of years ago. Abandoning the job can not be. Besides, many people go to the sea still need a basket boat.
There are many concerns
Finished product
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In recent years, plastic baskets manufactured by technology have been gradually replaced to replace bamboo boats. Afraid of losing his career, Phan Liem encouraged his two sons to continue their careers. Pressing his knuckles, he said that along the seaside villages of Da Nang, there are now only three people working on the "hereditary" craft as a living proof of a surviving profession. European career tomorrow is also understandable!
Mr. Phan Liem said: “Young people who follow jobs easily earn more money. Old people gradually disappear shadow mountain ". On the other hand, urban life, village encroachment, brick and concrete walls continue to encroach on bamboo rows. Therefore, the source of raw materials for weaving was gradually exhausted. “To have bamboo for knitting, Son Tra coastal knitting workers must go dozens of kilometers to Hoa Vang district and sometimes have to go further, to neighboring areas such as Quang Nam to select the materials for the profession. . Not to mention other important accessories such as cow dung to sweep outside the waterproof basket also become harder to find than before, ”said Phan Liem, looking as far away as the sea in the past. fishing villages where he stayed busy weaving scenes at each roof.
It takes about 5 days to make a basket and sell it for 2 to 2.5 million VND. Subtracting the cost of purchasing raw materials, the daily wage earned about VND 200,000. |
The need to buy bamboo baskets with the sea gradually fades, just like the gradual increase in the knitting industry of this fishing village. Then by chance a few years ago, a group of tourists passed by, saw the baskets of Mr. Phan Liem, and they had the will to buy them. After the surprise is fun. The basket boat has a new direction! It is abroad to do tourism. So, each year a couple of contracts with dozens of five dozen baskets are placed. Customers come from many countries such as England, Australia, Philippines, Japan ... Mr. Phan Liem's happiness is like a light blooming in the middle of the dark night. Sitting on a bamboo pole next to his father, Mr. Phan Minh confided: “The market is still in demand, the craft of basket boat is still alive. Sea in the turbulent season, the profession of knitting is the end for the family from breaking meals, it is easy for several generations of their family to prove it. Just unfortunately,
The sun before the sunset broke into the blue beach. The night fishing boats quietly headed toward the open sea. We noticed that the baskets were still placed by the fishermen on the bottom of the boat so that when the fishing stop was chosen, they would swim around the big boat. Suddenly we stole a thought, tomorrow, when the fire keepers like Mr. Phan Liem disappeared, the craft of basket boat making for hundreds of years with the people along the beach will still exist?