Thua Thien-Hue: Tour to ancient village attractive to visitors

An ancient house in Phuoc Tich village (Source: VNA)

Held since 2006, the tour, named “the ancient village’s old taste” during every Hue Festival, has helped attract more and more visitors to the locality.

On the tour, holiday-makers will enjoy folk games such as swinging, “bit mat dap nieu” (beat pot while blindfolded), “bit mat nau com” (cooking rice while blindfolded), tug of war and boat races, and experience daily activities of locals.

One of the only two ancient villages in Vietnam recognised as national cultural-historical relics, Phuoc Tich, located at Phong Hoa commune in Phong Dien district, was formed under the reign of King Le Thanh Tong (1460-1497) with the initial name of Dong Quyet and subsequently renamed Phuoc Tich during the Nguyen Dynasty (1802-1945).

It was also recognised as a national architectural and art relic site in 2009 by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Phuoc Tinh boasts thirty six 100-year-old houses carved with sophisticated patterns, which have invaluable architectural and cultural values.

These ancient wooden houses were built with three compartments and two lean-tos, surrounded by a garden with rows of green tea bushes serving as the fence and a brick-covered courtyard.

The village has also relic sites for belief and religious practices such as communal houses, pagodas, temples and Champa culture-related relic sites.

Crucially, it has maintained its traditional pottery craft through the centuries.

Families in the village have earned a living from making ceramics for the past 500 years. Phuoc Tich ceramics used to be very famous, and they were once selected for use by the Nguyen kings.

Local authorities are making efforts to preserve the craft.

With the assistance from the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in collaboration with Japan’s Showa Women’s University, Phuoc Tich is trying to revive its traditional ceramic craft.

Twenty residents from Phuoc Tich got support and training from the JICA and the university to devise new designs for their products using traditional techniques.

Visitors are delighted when served local food on plates and bowls made in the village in an idyllic setting of an orchard.

Nowadays, Phuoc Tich’s pottery kilns are burning bright, they not only turn out pottery products but also help promote the traditional craft to tourists.

Last year, Phuoc Tich village welcomed 4,398 visitors, a surge of 219 percent against 2013, bringing in 200 million VND in revenue.-VNA