Dư Dụ, the Wooden Figure Carving Village

The Water Puppet Carver

Someone has to carve them, doesn’t he? For they wear out and rot away so quickly in their watery environment; seemingly a reflection of the human lives they themselves reflect back to their human audiences.

It’s so Vietnamese, isn’t it? But, how could it not be? Having started in the land that gave us wet rice cultivation – with that quintessential image of a woman, bent over, ankle-deep in the mud, sprigs up to her knees, surrounded by the flat, green, chessboard of fields, with a nón lá upon her head. What could be more appropriate than vignettes of daily life within the shallow waters, and fiery dragons and other heavenly beasts frolicking about among them? And, someone has to carve them, doesn’t he? For they wear out and rot away so quickly in their watery environment; seemingly a reflection of the human lives they themselves reflect back to their human audiences.

His name is Quang Huy and he is the one who carves them – the water puppets which entertain tourists and locals alike at the Hanoi Water Puppet Theater. We watched his craftsmen carve the figures. We went into his storehouse and looked upon the pile of puppets and had him pose for that picture. We walked around the village of Dư Dụ and spent time talking with the people who carve the large statues of dieties and demons that greet us every time we enter a house of worship in Vietnam. And, we were so kindly invited to have tea and see the house and meet the family of the woman who carves some of the goods which are likely to end up in the tourist market of some Chinese town.

Translation to Vietnamese kindly provided by my Vietnamese teacher, Bùi Phương Thảo.
To get to Dư Dụ, follow National Highway 1 (Lê Duẩn) southbound to Thường Tìn. Turn right onto Road 71 in the direction of Gia Vinh. Continue straight past the turnoff for Thụy Ứng. Dư Dụ is on the Nhuệ River.