Conical Hat - A Piece of Vietnam
How Inseparable It is?
The hat has a conical shape, made out of straw and is kept on the head by a silk cloth chin trap that keeps the hat from slipping out of the wearer’s head. This traditional conical hat is particularly suitable for farmers in such a tropical country as Vietnam where fierce sunshine and hard rains take place as often as girls’ sulking. It can be used as a basin or a bowl to contain water when they are thirsty, as a fan when they are hot, as a basket of a bunch of vegetables. Romantically, young couples can veil their kisses behind this traditional conical hat during their dates.The legend behind the hat is that, once upon a time, there was a very tall woman who often wore a magical kind of hat made from four round leaves knitted together with bamboo. Wherever this woman appeared, clouds passed and the weather became favorable. After teaching people to plant vegetables and trees for their living, she secretly passed and ascended to the heavens. Yet, she was honored as the Goddess of Human and ever since, they have made hats in the shape of hers to protect themselves from the sun and the rain.
Is Making a Conical Hat Difficult?
If you look at a hat, it seems easily to make. Yet, it is not! “Conical hat making requires painstaking precision”, said 83 year-old Le Thi Viet, the oldest master of Chuong village where thousands of conical hats are produced every day. It is therefore considered the home of the conical hat in today’s Vietnam.To make a proper hat, not only the maker is talent but also their experiences are plentiful. After being separated into very thin strings during the dry season, bamboo cataphyll then must be quickly submerged in water to preclude tearing and breaking. The palm, after being cleaned by sand, will be torn and turned from dark green to white after being sun-seasoned. The stronger the sun, the whiter the palms will become. Finally, to make them whiter and to preserve the color, they will be exposed sulfur, separated and ironed. Sewing and decorating must be sophisticated, too. You have to sew small and even stitches, which means you need time and patience.Only watching craftsmen sewing conical hats inside brown tile-roofed houses in Chuong village can give you the real understanding. Looking at an old woman with crooked back, wrinkled face and shriveled hands, it’s hard to imagine that she can hold her hands steady enough to do the needlework, but she manages it skillfully. “My mother taught me to sew non la when I was six years old. Now I’m 78. I could sew hats with my eyes closed,” Tam smiled.
A Long History of Conical Hat
According to historian Le Van Lan, Vietnamese girls and women have worn the conical hat for a long time. The ancestor of today’s conical hat was carved on Ngoc Lu kettledrum and Ao Thinh bronze jar 2,500 to 3000 years ago. “Though no one knows exactly when the hat was born, for a long time the conical hat has been considered the symbol of Vietnamese farmers and Vietnamese people, in general,” says Lan.
The Original Lands of Conical Hat
If you ask me where you can find the best conical hat, I would say that due to its popularity, each region in Vietnam has a well-known conical hat - making village. The conical hat of the Tay group has a distinctively red color, whereas that in Thanh Ho...
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