A series of round, multi-size wooden cutting boards exposed along the roads is a very nice picture when you go through Dinh An commune, Lap Vo district, Dong Thap. This is a "hereditary" village with tradition of more than 70 years of age, famous throughout the country. The peaceful natural scenery, cool climate here will be a green tourist destination combining with visiting craft villages that you should not miss when you have the opportunity to return to Dong Thap.
1. About Dong Thap tourism
Dong Thap is a province in the Mekong Delta. Dong Thap soil is fertile by alluvial soil deposited by the Tien and Hau rivers over the years, rich villages amidst four green trees. Therefore, Dong Thap is known as a granary of the country, abundant in agricultural and aquatic products.
Coming to Dong Thap, visitors have the opportunity to admire the beauty of gentle canals, vast rice fields and fragrant lotus ponds, enjoying countless delicious specialties of the Western River.
Dong Thap is a place where tourists can visit famous scenic spots throughout the region such as Mo Cu Mon relic Nguyen Bang Sac, Go Thap Monuments, Tram Chim National Park - Tam Nong, Xeo Quit Monuments. , Tan Qui Dong ornamental flower village, orchards of Cao Lanh ...
Dong Thap is famous for craft villages
In addition, there are many traditional craft villages in Dong Thap, such as Dinh Yen mat village, Sa Dec flower village, Dinh An chopping village ... Dong Thap area is an ideal place for those who want to escape from the town. Bo and enjoy the peaceful scenery with rustic rural life.
Dong Thap has a cool and moderate year-round climate, so you can hang out in any season. However, in the floating season, the natural landscape will be more beautiful, turning up the unique features of the countryside. At the same time, you will enjoy many specialties of Dong Thap this season.
Floating water season from August to November in lunar calendar. Please plan in detail for your trip to experience many interesting things about Dong Thap.
2. Characteristics of Dinh An cutting board
The Dinh An cutting board village of An Hoa hamlet, Dinh An commune, Lap Vo district has been operating year-round for more than 70 years. The village serves cutting boards and daily necessities in every kitchen of Vietnamese people.
Chopping craft in Dinh An is a hereditary profession, people currently working also do not know the exact time of the job. The oldest person also said, when they were born, they saw people in the village already doing this job.
Dinh An and Dong Thap chopping villages have a tradition of more than 70 years
When you come here to visit, visitors will always hear the exciting sound, immerse in the bustling scene of the saws, chisels, the sound of operating the machine, the car is pulled, the other is drying boards. Currently, there are 10 households maintaining their occupation to provide cutting boards throughout the region.
Although the work is quite hard, the people of Dinh An are still attached to the profession of cutting board because this is a job that both creates income and is a traditional job that needs to be preserved by his father.
3. History of Dinh An cutting board village
According to the villagers, from the past, people here often transported, bought and sold goods and agricultural products by boats and canoes to remote provinces. When they return, they often buy roofs to buy roofs, buy blind trees - a very solid wood that often grows wild along rivers to make pillars, rafters, sesame ...
The residual blind wood remains after building houses, people here saw cutting them to make cutting boards. Gradually, more and more cutting boards, people brought to sell, in exchange for wood, utensils. Blind wood is a relatively cheap but solid wood, when used as a chopping board, it does not stain as other cutting boards. Gradually rumors spread far away, everyone knows the place to produce cutting boards in Dinh An. Since then formed this traditional village.
Initially, the village of Dinh An chopping boards specialties are blind . But, nowadays, due to less and less amount of blind wood, people work on other types of wood such as nacre, mango, jackfruit, goose, shackles, tamarind, etc., which also have good quality and are preferred by the market. Cho An chopping board has maintained its popularity since ancient times.
Products Dinh An cutting board famous near and far
Every year, in the flood season, or the floating season around September of the lunar calendar, Dinh An commune begins to be more bustling than usual. The sounds of saws, chisels, machines, and laughter of people working as a cutting board make this countryside feel like having a new life. This is the most busy time of the year to prepare goods for the Lunar New Year.
On average, a family in Dinh An produces 200 cutting boards a day. But in the peak period such as Tet, the demand of the cutting board increased, the productivity could be increased to 1,000 units. If you visit the craft village on this occasion, you will feel the hustle atmosphere in a traditional craft village setting.
4. Specialty blind chopping boards
Talking about the profession of making wooden cutting boards, the owners shared here that they had the famous specialty of wooden cutting boards, making the name of the craft village. In the past, when the whole village had more than a dozen households making cutting boards, most of the products were blind boards. Because blind trees grow much in the West, mainly growing wild along rivers and canals, but the area adjacent to the water. So blind wood is very cheap but because the tree grows slowly, very hard and durable wood suitable for cutting boards.
The wooden cutting boards are extremely durable, equivalent to crushed wood. However, because of hard, solid wood, production is more difficult. A cutting board has four people, one day can only make more than a dozen chopping boards. Now, partly because of market demand, partly because the trees are not so large, so the chopping board is mainly made from jackfruit, nacre, cajuput or mango wood. Those who reserved the new cutting boards were made of blind wood.
5. Elaborating cutting boards in Dinh An
According to those who have experience in the cutting board village, to have a beautiful cutting board, the worker must perform many stages. First, you have to choose an old tree, dry the plastic and cut it into pieces and then continue to sun in order not to get moldy.
To have a cutting board that is durable, does not break, podium when used, the worker must cut so that the thickness, roundness and width of the cutting board must be balanced. This technique requires people with long-term professional experience to obtain.
Previously, all the stages were done manually, using human power, later thanks to the machinery, the work performed faster such as cutting the section by sawing machine, round by circular saws. And from there, the output also increased many times.
Here the men saw, chisel, cut and the women sanded and dried the slabs. There is a certain stage that must be done manually. Polishing is the process of deciding whether the cutting board is smooth or not and cannot be replaced by machines.
To have a finished product, it must go through many stages
According to the people, the profession of making cutting boards is especially in the sun, especially in the rainy season. The weather is erratic, the sun is always in the sun. If the rainy season is like now, sometimes the whole week will be sunny enough to move to a smooth cutting step. But do not expose, the product will not be quality because fresh wood is easy to podium, batch when used. Over the past decades, the people of Dinh An commune have been working hard with this job because it is both a income-generating and a traditional job.
The wooden cutting board is a very familiar item for our daily life. And interestingly, behind such a simple item, there is an old traditional village with cultural beauty. Then from here, when we talk about cutting boards, we mention the village of Dinh An cutting board of Dong Thap province . If you have the opportunity to return to Dong Thap, go on green tours, drop soul into beautiful nature, do not forget to visit this special chopping village.
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