Two Vietnamese living in France, Bui Thi Cam Ha and Le Thai, have donated a 100-year-old book depicting the daily lives and work of Vietnamese people in the early 20 th century to the Hue Royal Antiquities Museum in central Thua Thien-Hue province.
Printed on “do” (poonah) paper using wood carving technique, the 348-page book measuring 62cm x 44cm was compiled by Frenchman Henri Oger in coordination with some painters and wood-engravers in Hanoi.
From 1908 to 1909, Oger and the team went to various places in Hanoi’s Old Quarter and suburban areas to draw more than 4,200 pictures of traditional industries like agriculture, paper-making, sculpture and construction, as well as daily activities such as weddings, funerals and festivals.
All pictures are accompanied with captions in Nom (a demotic script based on Chinese characters formerly used to write Vietnamese), making them precious documents for research on Vietnamese society in this period.
This is the fourth “Techniques of the Annamese people” book in Vietnam and the only one that is complete, said Director of the Hue Relics Preservation Centre Phan Thanh Hai.-VNA
Printed on “do” (poonah) paper using wood carving technique, the 348-page book measuring 62cm x 44cm was compiled by Frenchman Henri Oger in coordination with some painters and wood-engravers in Hanoi.
From 1908 to 1909, Oger and the team went to various places in Hanoi’s Old Quarter and suburban areas to draw more than 4,200 pictures of traditional industries like agriculture, paper-making, sculpture and construction, as well as daily activities such as weddings, funerals and festivals.
All pictures are accompanied with captions in Nom (a demotic script based on Chinese characters formerly used to write Vietnamese), making them precious documents for research on Vietnamese society in this period.
This is the fourth “Techniques of the Annamese people” book in Vietnam and the only one that is complete, said Director of the Hue Relics Preservation Centre Phan Thanh Hai.-VNA
