Woven Basket Boats of Vietnam Introduction
Charlotte Minh Hà Pham, M.A.
Asia Research Center (Murdoch University) Western Australia Maritime Museum Ph.D. Candidate/INA
During the first two seasons of the Bạch Đằng Project, Charlotte was based in Hanoi Vietnam, studying local boatbuilding traditions. An ethnographical investigation on boatbuilding craftsmanship, entrenched in Vietnam’s history and culture, is at the heart of her Ph.D. thesis. She hopes to draw the attention of Vietnamese academics to the potential that maritime archaeology has to help to preserve maritime aspects of Vietnamese culture and underwater heritage. She also hopes INA’s Bạch Đằng Project, along with her ethnographic studies, will help promote new methodologies and approaches in the academic development of maritime archaeology in Vietnam.
On the day the Mongols arrived to face them across the Red River, at Bạch Hạc junction, the Trần positioned a number of boats further downstream: “Men, horses and elephants spread out along the bank. Boats were set up along the lower part of the river for a quick get away.” (Đại 1 Việt sử ký toàn thư, note 48, p. 259) Three seasons of the Bạch Đằng Project progressively lead us closer to understanding both the battle itself and the strategies of Trần Hưng Đạo, yet, we still have very little information on the naval forces used in Đại Việt in the 13th 2 century. The Bạch Đằng Project provided a unique opportunity to dive further into the maritime cultural landscape of the region, a pivotal pursuit for me as a maritime archaeologist working specifically on boatbuilding in pre-colonial Vietnam. Interested in exploring the type of boats the Đại Việt navy could have used during the oppositions between the Mongols and Đại Việt, I took the chance to examine near the ancient Bạch Đằng battle field, a unique woven 3 basket boatbuilding tradition that is specific to Vietnam. Unfortunately, data on 4 boat building in Vietnam prior to the 19th century are scarce. As such the aim of my study was not to directly identify the boats of Đại Việt, but rather to produce data that could be relevant for investigating the potential of the Đại Việt fleet: the materials available for boat building, the sizes, the propulsion systems and the available nautical technology. As an outgrowth of the Bạch Đằng Project presented in this volume (Sasaki & Kimura), the following paper intends to showcase the originality and savoir faire of Vietnamese boat builders by outlining the general construction sequence and characteristics of contemporary basket boats (Fig. 1).
FIG 1
Thuyên nan in Thác Bà Lake. 2009 (P. Moreau).
93 Basket Boats-Vietnam