A pilgrimage to Nhị Khê

The village of Nhị Khê, about 20 kilometers south of Hà Nội, has a two-fold interest for students of Vietnamese culture. It is the native place of Nguyễn Trãi, who was one of the prominent figures of Vietnamese history and literature; it is also the cradle of a traditional handicraft using the turning-lathe.

Nhị Khê features a gate with these ideograms; “Như kiến đại tân” (Welcome to the distinguished guests), wide paved lanes, a park with the statue of the great man, and a temple dedicated to him housing two precious objects: an ancient portrait of Nguyễn Trãi and a bamboo whose joints compose a landscape design in relief.

It was here and in several world capitals that in 1980 the 6^th centenary of that eminent humanist was celebrated to implement a decision by UNESCO. Director General A. M. M’Bow explained: “Our epoch is the first in history to regard the loyalty of the world’s spiritual and material, literary and artistic supports as an indivisible heritage which belongs to the whole of humanity. Poets of a country are in many cases its messengers. They deserve even more that title when, centuries after their deaths, their messages are evoked in the minds of subsequent generations. This was the role given to the work of Nguyễn Trãi in the history of Việt Nam. There his voice remains pre-eminently that of a great tormented in his own country.”

Nguyễn Trãi (1380-1442) rendered invaluable services to the country as a strategist (he was the soul of a victorious ten-year-long war of resistance against Chinese Ming aggressors), political figure (Minister of the Interior), diplomat, writer (he wrote the famous Proclamation of the Victory over the Wu), poet (he was the pioneer of poetry in the national language) and scholar (he was the author of a treatise of geography). Victim of a court intrigue on account of his uprightness, he was killed together with almost all members of his family.

Nhị Khê is still the cradle of Vietnamese lathe turners. Actually, the Patron Saint of this trade, Đoàn Tài lived in the village of Khánh Vân, just facing the village of Nhị Khê. Đoàn Tài lived around the 17^th and 18^th centuries, the time when the Lê Kings reigned and the Trịnh shoguns governed. Mining prospered at the same time as handicraft trades, among many others the famous porcelain from Bái Tràng Village which was sold to people in places as far as Japan.

In the second sanctuary of Khánh Vân Pagoda, we still hold the Patron Saint in reverence made of blue-tinged stone, seated before two typical instruments used by a lathe turner, also made the blue-tinged stone. Every year turners from around the country meet at Đoàn Tài Temple to celebrate the anniversary of his death which happened quite unexpectedly in the hundredth year of his life, as the popular local saying goes:

“He lived the hundred years of his human life fully

And he died on the 25^th day of the 10^th moon.”

This trade, however, didn’t always put food on the table of this handicraftsman who, therefore, voiced his complaint.

“Oh Heaven! Don’t you sympathize with my misfortune

I wear myself out making bushels on my lathe so that the grain can be measured

I make bushels but I do not measure out any grain

The more bushels I make the more despair I feel

Other people pour grain in and out of their bushels

It’s nothing but labor lost for me to turn.”

The 1945 famine took the lives of many very highly-qualified turners. Since the end of the First Indochina War (1954), Nhị Khê has gradually succeeded in improving its economy by harvesting two rice crops annually and by modernizing lathe-turning. Every household partakes in these two activities: agriculture provides food, money for every expense, construction and even for the purchase of luxury items: motorbikes, TV, refrigerator.

Instead of being worked by two bamboo petals, the petals, the lathe, though rudimentary, is electrically operated but a good eye and hand are still essential. They turn wood, bamboo, water buffalo horn, ivory, bones, plastic, shells. Everything can be made to order: flower vases, machine accessories, necklace beads, bracelets, chess pawns, and knick-knacks.

The Nhị Khê lathe-turners also contributed to the national war, delivering millions of parts for grenades, not to mention all of the parts for artificial limbs. Their products are beginning to be exported./.