Located in a small valley, surrounded by majestic pine forests, Hua Tat village, Van Ho commune, has beautiful natural scenery, along with the unique cultural features of the Mong ethnic group. In recent years, people in Hua Tat have exploited the available advantages to develop community tourism associated with preserving and conserving traditional culture.

Tourists experience beeswax painting on fabric in Hua Tat village, Van Ho commune.

On weekends, Hua Tat village is bustling with domestic and international tourist groups. At A Chu homestay, in a natural setting with rustic wooden roofs, tourists are excited to experience beeswax painting on indigo-dyed fabric with the locals. A traditional craft that has been preserved by the Mong people here for generations.

Mrs. Giang Thi Nang, Hua Tat village, shared: Nowadays, due to the development of industry, the demand for fabric with beeswax patterns in daily life has decreased. Thanks to community tourism, the activity of beeswax painting on fabric has been restored and preserved, and the Mong people in Hua Tat have a new livelihood.

When coming to the homestays in Hua Tat, visitors will be guided meticulously from the process of cooking wax, painting, dyeing, boiling fabric, drying and receiving the finished product. With simple designs, in just about an hour, visitors can complete a 25x25cm product and take it home as a souvenir. The price for a tour of 4-6 people to experience beeswax painting on fabric is 400,000 VND, including the cost of materials and finished products.

Tourists are delighted with the products they made themselves.

Holding a product with the patterns they just drew, Ms. Giulia, a tourist from Italy, happily said: Before coming here, I only knew about brocade costumes through souvenir stalls. But when I cooked beeswax myself, held the handmade drawing tools and felt each pattern appearing on the fabric, I felt the sophistication and elaborateness in the process of creating the product, and saw the love for culture of the people here.

Along with beeswax drawing, the Mong people's papermaking craft also brings an interesting experience and is loved by many tourists when coming to Hua Tat. Mr. Trang A Cua is the first person in the village to turn papermaking into a tourism product. Mr. Cua said: The Mong people's papermaking technique has existed for at least 300 years and has been passed down through many generations. Nowadays, tourism is developing, I and a group of volunteers from Singapore have experienced, summarized and recorded the entire paper making process, edited it into a bilingual document in Vietnamese and English, helping tourists easily access and understand more about the traditional paper making profession.

Foreign tourists experience paper making in Hua Tat village, Van Ho commune.

It is known that the paper making class for groups of 4-6 people costs 300,000 VND/session, with steps such as: pounding bamboo, separating paper, spreading dough, drying and shaping. If tourists want to experience more activities such as collecting raw materials and instructions on boiling bamboo, the cost increases to about 500,000 VND/session.

To enhance the experience for tourists, people in Hua Tat have creatively made handmade paper with beeswax patterns that are widely used in decoration, such as: making lamps, wall paintings, handmade notebooks, postcards, sketches or calligraphy. Tourists to the village are also very interested in the experience of making paper flower paintings or designing their own paper lamps.

Indigo fabric products painted with beeswax by the Mong people in Hua Tat village, Van Ho commune.

Other traditional crafts, such as knife forging, linen spinning, weaving, and skirt embroidery of the Mong people will continue to become tourism products that help enhance the experience for visitors when coming to Hua Tat. Mr. Trang A Chu, owner of A Chu homestay, shared: After the harvest season (July - August), farmers are idle and have no work, tourism helps them earn more money. Households that do not run homestays still have a stable source of income by guiding experiences, supporting visitors or producing handmade products to sell to tourists... Thanks to tourism, many traditional crafts have been restored and promoted.

Tourism not only brings income, but also contributes to reviving crafts that were thought to have been lost. Hua Tat today is not only a destination, but also a place to preserve the soul of culture, where traditional values ​​are preserved and shine.