Chuong Village - The famous conical hat village in Hanoi

Chuong Village in Hanoi’s outlying district of Thanh Oai is famous across Vietnam for making conical hats. Local villagers have preserved the craft for more than three centuries. If you’d like to buy some as souvenirs or witness the villagers create them in front of your eyes, you should take a day trip to Chuong Village - A lovely day trip into Vietnamese culture.

- It is difficult to nail down precisely when the villagers began crafting the hats. It is said that the craft has been handed down through generations in the village for hundreds of years. According to the elders, the quality of the village’s products was recognised long ago in a folk song: “Whoever wants a beautiful conical hat can come to Chuong village”.

- According to an artisan in the village, it takes time, patience and painstaking accuracy to make a conical hat. Green leaves brought from Quang Binh and Phu Tho province are left to dry in the sunshine until they turn white. The craftsmen then iron the leaves under a heated ploughshare to make flatten and harden them.

- Next, the leaves are assembled in a wooden frame and sewn with 16 rounds of needling, using silk thread. It is easy to recognise a Chuong village conical hat at first sight because only Chuong villagers sew their hats with 16 rounds of needling, which tightens the layers of leaves while maintaining the product’s elegance.

- Finally, the hat is lightly coated with oil of turpentine to avoid becoming mouldy in damp or rainy weather.

On the 4th, 10th, 14th, 20th, 24th and 30th days of every lunar month, people from neighbouring provinces gather in the village’s market held for trading activity. The market day starts at 06.00am and lasts around two hours. Only hats and their materials are sold at the market.

The conical hat has become familiar to Vietnamese women across many generations; rich and poor, in big cities and rural areas. The conical hat has given a discreet charm to Vietnamese women, and has become a unique feature of Vietnamese culture, sought after by many foreign visitors.