On rainy and windy days, when we couldn’t go to work in the fields, my mother would invite us girls to take a rattan chair out to the front yard to sew. My grandmother wore reading glasses and threaded a needle, smiling toothlessly at the funny stories we kids told. The rattan chair made a creaking sound as it bore the weight of our bodies and giggled.
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The rattan chair has been with us Dao people for a long time. The chair has eight wooden legs, surrounded by two circles bent from rattan trunks, one circle on top to weave small split rattan to make the chair seat, one circle below touching the ground, two circles surrounding the eight legs, very beautiful and sturdy. At the bottom of the chair seat is woven a spider web shape to both support the upper seat and bring a mysterious beauty.
The craft of making rattan chairs has been passed down in my family from generation to generation. My grandfather told us that the rattan chair is not only a useful household item, providing extra income to buy vegetables and salt, but also has a very profound meaning. The round base at the foot represents the grandparents, the eight wooden bars represent the grandchildren, the top circle represents the parents, and the chair surface is the roof that protects from the rain and wind. The structure of the rattan chair is as strong as the good family affection, a bond that no storm can break.
Rattan chairs are usually very durable, they can last for more than ten years without breaking. There is a rattan chair my grandfather made before I was born, and it has been used for nearly thirty years. He said that once you have the profession of making rattan chairs, you cannot give it up for the rest of your life. The profession is closely linked to your life, so you children and grandchildren must work hard to preserve it and not let it disappear. My father has been following his grandfather's profession for many years now.
During the off-season, my father would go to the beginning of summer, rolling the rattan rope he had brought back from the forest to make rattan chairs. He lit a fire and threw the rattan rope in. A moment later, he brought the rattan rope to the wooden pole. My mother understood what he meant and held one end of the rattan rope and stood behind my father. My father held the strong, steel-hard rattan in front and twisted it into a circle around the tree trunk, while my mother stood behind, holding the rattan rope and following his twists.
After rolling the rattan, my parents rolled the wood over the fire to burn the rattan again to bend it into the desired round shapes before continuing with the next steps. I took on the task of weaving the chair surface because it was the simplest step and made me feel the most excited about making rattan chairs. My mother held a very sharp knife to strip the rattan bark into long, thin pieces, I just held the rattan fibers and quickly wove them tightly onto the chair frame my father had already created. Usually, when we girls mentioned rattan, they only liked the bunches of ripe brown rattan fruit, thin skin, sour flesh, very fragrant. The rattan tree has many thorns, when going to get rattan, you have to wear boots and gloves very carefully because if you accidentally get a rattan thorn stuck in your skin, it will be both painful and stinging. The rattan tree is very strange, it is rare to bring it home to plant, otherwise, you have to go find rattan in the forest. The rattan leaves spread out lush green with a wild mountain forest beauty.
Every time he went to collect rattan vines, he would always bring a bundle of rattan shoots. After peeling off the bark, the rattan shoots revealed a plump white color. The rattan shoots could be stir-fried with wild fern, stir-fried with meat, or grilled over charcoal and dipped in chili salt. It was very delicious. Lately, it took my dad a long time to find rattan vines, going deeper into the forest to find them, and he no longer took the thorny rattan shoots. He said he would let the rattan grow and eat them all, then where would he get the rattan to weave and continue the traditional craft?
I stacked the chairs I had just finished, tied them with rattan ropes, and carried them to the market tomorrow to sell. In total, after two days of hard work, my father and I made twelve chairs. My father told me to sell them at the old price and not to increase the price. I silently followed suit, even though I knew that prices were skyrocketing, and selling a chair for one hundred thousand was too low. I would just use my labor to make a profit, hoping that there would still be many people who loved the traditional products so that the rattan chair making profession would have a chance to survive.
I stroked the smooth surface of the rattan chair, looking intently at the pattern on the chair that I had just created. I felt my spirit lighten, a feeling of love, joy, and pride from ancient times was being transmitted into me. I will continue the steps of the profession, continuing the tradition from my father so that the rattan chair will follow the children of the mountain as a unique cultural feature on each of their journeys.
According to Hanoi People Magazine online
Source: https://baophutho.vn/chiec-ghe-may-cua-cha-226495.htm
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