Hoi An World Cultural Heritage Conservation Center
Reflections on the Basket Boat in Hội An
Across the length of Vietnam, from the uplands to the lowlands, from mountainous and midland areas to delta plains, estuaries, coastal zones, and islands, every region has its own distinctive types of boats and watercraft associated with local riverine and maritime environments. Among these is one particularly unique and long-standing means of transport and fishing in rivers, creeks, and coastal waters: the basket boat.
The thúng chai is a regional term widely used from Quảng Bình southward to the riverine regions of the Mekong Delta to refer to a type of watercraft used in river and marine environments. Circular in shape like a woven grain basket, it is made from split bamboo, bound with rattan or synthetic cord, and coated using traditional techniques with dầu rái resin, chai phà, and cattle manure to make it watertight.
To date, no documentary source has definitively established the origin of this distinctive basket boat. In the Red River Delta, there is a legend about Trần Ứng Long during the Đinh dynasty (960-980), who is said to have crafted a bamboo-woven boat sealed with tree resin to transport troops across rivers. However, this was likely a woven bamboo boat of oval form or with pointed ends, still widely used in some northern riverine regions and known there as a thuyền thúng or thuyền mủng, rather than the thúng chai familiar to central Vietnam. In any case, a basket boat would hardly have been suitable for carrying large numbers of soldiers across a river. Some have suggested that the basket boat originated among the Cham, but there is no solid evidence for this, and in practice the Cham today make very limited use of it.
Residents of Cù Lao Chàm use basket boats for fishing – Photo by Hồng Việt.
Others claim that the basket boat emerged during the Nguyễn Lords period as a practical response to the hazards of going to sea, while another view holds that it was created during the French colonial period to evade taxes on boats assessed according to hull width. Given these differing views, and in the absence of more reliable documentary evidence, it is reasonable for now to regard the basket boat as a long-established means of transport and fishing in Hội An and Quảng Nam in particular, and in Đàng Trong and Vietnam more broadly. It shares the same civilizational roots as the wet-rice and bamboo craft traditions that produced baskets, trays, and winnowing tools. In turn, the basket boat emerged to meet the individual and household need for mobility and aquatic harvesting. It is a distinctive and long-standing riverine and maritime tool that reflects Vietnamese ingenuity, skilled weaving techniques, and an enduring capacity to adapt to waterways, seas, and island environments.
In the early morning, just as the sun rises above the peak of Hòn Lao at Cù Lao Chàm, one can witness an extraordinary sight at An Bàng or Phước Trạch Beach: small basket boats bobbing over the white-crested waves and making their way safely to shore, carrying fresh fish, squid, and crabs from the previous night’s fishing trip. These basket boats resemble leaves riding the sea swells, each with only a single fisher and a short paddle aboard. Equally striking is the sight of them deftly weaving among rocky outcrops in search of seafood, or drifting gently and leisurely across ponds, lakes, and river channels while their users cast lines or set nets. In the past, basket boats also served to transport goods, equipment, and people between the shore and larger ghe bầu trading boats or merchant vessels. They were carried aboard offshore fishing vessels for tuna and squid fishing, used alongside dragnet boats to deploy nets, and even served as containers for salted fish. Basket boats have also functioned as effective emergency and rescue craft during storms, floods, and other urgent situations.
More recently, the basket boat has taken on a new role in tourism activities associated with rivers and coastal environments. This is an especially effective and creative continuation of local tradition. In places such as Cù Lao Chàm, An Bàng, Phước Trạch, Cẩm Thanh, and Cẩm Châu, basket boats have become a means for visitors to experience line fishing, net casting, and harvesting aquatic products alongside local fishers. The basket boat spinning performance has become part of the tourism program at the Bảy Mẫu Coconut Forest in Cẩm Thanh and is now a distinctive and eye-catching water-based attraction that draws large numbers of visitors. In Cẩm Thanh alone, there were 400 households operating 918 basket boats for tourism in 2018. By 2019, that number had risen to 1,200, contributing significantly to the improvement of local livelihoods.
More recently, on 25 November 2023, the Hoi An Center for the Conservation of World Cultural Heritage launched the publication Basket Boats in Hội An. The event was attended by specialists, managers, artists, tourism businesses, and several people who had directly practiced basket boat weaving and use. At the launch, Mr. Trần Quý, owner of a tourism business in the Bảy Mẫu Coconut Forest, expressed the wish to establish a venue where the distinctive features of basket boats and the local basket boat weaving craft could be introduced and demonstrated. He also noted that most of the basket boats in Cẩm Thanh are still made of bamboo, with only a small number produced from industrial plastic. This is encouraging, because in many other parts of Quảng Nam Province, including even Cù Lao Chàm, fishers have shifted largely to plastic basket boats, leaving little space for the traditional craft of basket boat weaving. In Tam Thanh, when we conducted a field survey at the end of 2020, there were still a number of households weaving basket boats for sale, but that practice has now ceased entirely, as local fishers there have switched to plastic versions.
Given the current decline of basket boat weaving, the establishment of a dedicated site for the practice and demonstration of this craft is, arguably, highly necessary. In the short term, such a space would help introduce the distinctive features of the basket boat; more fundamentally, it would contribute to safeguarding a unique local traditional craft. It would also represent a practical and meaningful action in promoting the creative value of local cultural heritage, specifically the basket boat and its traditional weaving craft, while contributing positively to the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, which Hội An has recently joined in the field of Crafts and Folk Art.
Author: Trần Văn An
Source: Hoi An Center for the Conservation of World Cultural Heritage
Newer articles
Older articles
