With a history of more than 600 years, the wooden shipbuilding craft village of Cong Muong in Phong Hai ward, Quang Yen town (Quang Ninh) is gradually fading away, standing on the brink of extinction.
A golden age
Late afternoon on a day in early March, sitting in the large house that was once a legacy of his ancestors, artisan Le Van Chan - the 17th generation descendant of Cong Muong craft village slowly recalled the golden age of the craft village.
Artisan Le Van Chan with a model of a three-sided boat with bat-wing sails - a product that has created a unique brand for Cong Muong craft village.
Mr. Chan said, according to the elders in the village, during the reign of King Le Thanh Tong, in 1434, there were 17 clan groups from Thang Long citadel sailing down to the Eastern region to reclaim and open up land.
When they arrived in the Ha Nam area of present-day Quang Yen town, they found the land fertile and the climate mild, so they stopped to settle down. They built dikes, reclaimed land from the sea and established a prosperous residential area.
Also here, many craft villages were formed, including the craft of building ships and wooden boats born in the old Phong Luu village, now Cong Muong, Phong Hai ward.
Here, many types of ships and boats were born to go out to sea. But the most famous is the three-sided boat with bat-wing sails, which has the advantage of being able to go against the current and wind.
With such achievements, the craft village was praised and awarded by many feudal dynasties. Typically, in the 28th year, King Tu Duc issued a decree to honor it as "Craft village that benefits the country, benefits the family, benefits the people, and is useful". Or in the 8th year of Thanh Thai, the king also issued a decree praising the talented craftsmen of Phong Luu boat building village.
Especially during the years of resistance against France and the US, many ships built by the craft village made an important contribution to transporting weapons, ammunition, and food to all battlefields in the North and South.
"With the many advantages of the bat-winged sampan, many domestic and international researchers have come to learn and apply the experience and boat-building techniques in Cong Muong. It is an honor that in November 2014, Cong Muong was recognized as a traditional craft village by Quang Ninh province," artisan Chan boasted.
Risk of loss
Despite its long and proud tradition, the craft village has not built any new ships in recent years due to lack of orders. The craft village is in danger of fading away and being lost.
Once a bustling wooden shipbuilding village, Cong Muong is now deserted and in danger of being lost.
Leading the reporter to the quiet family workshop area, the area previously used as a dock and a shipyard is now a gathering place for shells, Mr. Chan lamented: "With a tradition of more than 600 years, from a craft village with dozens of worker's sheds, hundreds of workers day and night, lighting up the river, now the whole village only has a few weak production facilities. The craft village is facing the risk of being lost!"
If ten years ago, the whole village had nearly 30 wooden shipbuilding workshops with about 500 workers, building 30 new ships/year, now there are only a few workshops with a few dozen workers, mainly doing repairs.
Mr. Nguyen Nhat Thang, 75 years old, one of the families that still maintains a boat repair workshop in Cong Muong said: "My family has been in this profession for many generations and has become rich.
Before, the family workshop was always crowded with workers, unable to keep up with orders. But now, there are only a few people left in the workshop, working as day laborers and barely making enough money to buy rice.
According to Mr. Thang, the root cause of this situation is due to some regulations on fishing license quotas and offshore fishing vessels having to be 15m or longer, causing the cost of building new boats and ships to increase, making it difficult to find a source of wood of such large sizes for building.
On the other hand, recently, the demand for iron and composite ships has been very high, so few people order wooden ships. Therefore, Cong Muong craft village has gradually fallen into a deserted state, with few hammer sounds.
"We are old, we all expect the younger generation to be passionate and responsible for the profession of our fathers and grandfathers," said Mr. Thang.
Desire to keep the passion alive
After instructing the workers to complete the repair of the iron boat moored on the riverbank, Mr. Le Duc Son, the fourth son of artisan Le Duc Chan, shared that he is currently the only one in his family who follows the family's traditional profession. His brothers and sisters have all switched to building rafts for aquaculture or doing business services for many years now.
The work of some workshops in Cong Muong craft village is currently repairing wooden ships, so there is very little work.
"This is a traditional profession that has flourished for centuries. That's why I decided to follow my family's profession. However, the current difficulty for workshop owners is capital, production space and product output," said Mr. Thang.
According to many elders, it is not until now that those who are passionate about the craft village are struggling to find a new direction. Nearly ten years ago, many people in the village switched to building iron-hulled and composite ships.
Many households have proactively formed joint ventures and partnerships, sending their children to study and acquire new techniques. At the same time, the People's Committee of Quang Yen town has also connected businesses to Cong Muong to exploit experiential tourism.
However, when the transition to the new method was just getting started, the Covid-19 pandemic hit. Due to lack of capital to maintain, many workshops had to close and change jobs.
Pointing to a three-sided boat with a bat-wing sail for sale as a souvenir, artisan Le Duc Chan said: "The wood to build long-bodied fishing boats in areas according to current regulations is basically gone. Therefore, to commemorate the past, people can only build models to sell to tourists."
To preserve the craft village, the government needs to have a mechanism to support factory premises and capital to maintain production. Linking tourism development also needs support from the government. Because a few years ago, there were travel companies that intended to invest in the association, but due to difficulties in land procedures, they gave up.
"At the same time, each workshop owner needs to recruit and arrange for their children to attend training to grasp modern shipbuilding technology. Only then can the craft village be preserved," Mr. Chan expressed.
Speaking with reporters, Mr. Duong Van Hao, Vice Chairman of Quang Yen town, acknowledged the current difficulties of Cong Muong craft village and the government's lack of appropriate support mechanisms...
"In the future, the authorities will research and find solutions to prevent this craft village from disappearing, especially in terms of land, factories, and developing experiential tourism...", Mr. Hao said.
Source: https://www.baogiaothong.vn/lang-nghe-dong-tau-hon-600-tuoi-nguy-co-that-truyen-192250313231347277.htm
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