Travelog - A travel guide to Vietnam

Various items are made from cattle horns by skilful Vietnamese craftsmen, with many of them having a high-quality artistic value.

The market economy provides an effective impetus to boost traditional handicrafts, including the making of fine arts articles from cattle horns. Also, with a boost in income, the demand for interior decoration items is increasing.

In many families, nice fine arts articles in the shape of a phoenix, a peacock, a miniature, a dragon, a crab, a carp turning into a dragon, and even a sailing boat of Christopher Columbus (1451-15 06) are displayed for decoration in glass cupboards.

Nice hairpins in the shape of a couple of flying birds adorn young girls’ long hairs while on the pupils’ desks, black rulers are engraved with designs of a buffalo boy playing a flute while riding a buffalo and other images. Among Viet- souvenir items that foreign tourists take home, there are nice fans carved from cattle horns with beautiful designs. All these attest to the popularity of this form of art.

These various items are made from cattle horns by skilful Vietnamese craftsmen, with many of them having a highquality artistic value. On average, a family practising this craft uses from five to ten tonnes of cattle horns annually.

It takes several steps to make a cattle horn article. The first process is to shape a rough product which needs the help of specialised machines and tools. The next process is to finish the product by hand which requires not only the craftsmen’s expertise but also his imagination and great patience. So hot-tempered men do not practise this craft.

The booming information and technology industries have helped this traditional handicrafts thrive by providing customers with an awareness of the products. Foreign customers, mostly from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Canada, Malaysia, France and the United States, as well as domestic customers place orders for items they like by telephoning and sending the producers the items’ sizes, models and time for delivery. At some production establishments and family workshops with a good reputation, the hosts receive several groups of customers a day wanting to place the orders and visit the production bases at the same time.

Making articles from cattle horns is a long-standing traditional craft which needs special attention from the State in the current market economy. A policy on the export of those products, without unnecessary intermediary procedures which cause cumbersome delays to the pace of production and frustrate consumers, is needed. With appropriate assistance, this craft could be preserved and further develop into an export industry.