Precious Heritage Museum Issue 1

rehahnphotographer.com

PRECIOUS HERITAGE THE PRECIOUS HERITAGE ART GALLERY MUSEUM PUBLICATION

EXPLORE THE MUSEUM

2 INDIGO DYING AND BATIK DRAWING OF THE HMONG

4 THE KHMER ETHNIC COSTUME HAS BEEN ADDED TO THE MUSEUM

An Phuoc from the Cham ethnic Ninh Thuan - 2014

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Precious Heritage News

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ABOUT REHAHN

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elcome to the Precious Heritage Art Gallery Museum. Allow yourself to be transported to the furthest reaches of Vietnam and enjoy dwelling a while in this “home" to Réhahn's permanent exhibition of his Precious Heritage Collection.

Unveiling a rich cultural tapestry of ethnic tribes, you will be challenged to replace your current images of the country with a new vibrancy. Both a celebration and call for preservation, discover striking portraits, stories, and heirlooms that cannot be found anywhere else in the world.

This free museum, the only one of its kind, is a labor of love and respect. It stands as a testament to the connection, appreciation and plea Réhahn has for these remarkable yet vanishing tribes. Enter the museum and be whisked away to the diverse corners of Vietnam often inaccessible to foreigners.

Five rooms spanning over 500 sqm in a French colonial house from the 19th century, present hundreds of portraits, over 60 costumes, tribal songs, and a sense of wonder. Visiting each room you can follow Réhahn as he has ventured 7 years to document the lives, traditions and memoirs of 49 of 54 ethnic tribes left in the country. Many days, Réhahn can be found sharing his adventures with visitors, signing books or putting together one of the many hosted events throughout the year.

Promoting the beauty and enchanting diversity of Vietnam, he hopes to bring attention to the rapid loss of ethnic tradition by sharing the essence of the people who have revolutionized his career.

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art Fine Art Photographer, Part Documentarian, Réhahn’s portraits command attention while informing you of a reality that deserves acknowledgement. Best known for his work in Vietnam, Cuba and India, Rehahn continues traveling the globe connecting with it’s abundant cultures. One of the most featured photographers of the last 4 years, he has amassed a loyal following in a short span of time.

Numerously featured in international media such as: BBC Los Angeles Times National Geographic Business Insider The Independent Foto Digital Travel Live Conde Nast Traveler Elle Paris Match Marie-Claire Esquire NATGEO Forbes.

He has totaled more than 500 articles and interviews, and over 50 television appearances.

Réhahn continues to be grateful and humbled by all the support and encouragement from both fans, media, governments, and the local people he connects with. With this momentum he launched the “Giving Back Project” allowing him to work directly with families and communities to meet specific needs and requests of the people he documents. It is this kind of work, inspired by the bonds of both his personal and inherited families around the world that fuel the passion to continue this and every new project each year.

In addition to two galleries, Réhahn’s precious Heritage Museum is a growing collection consisting of 100 photographs and 62 traditional wardrobe ensembles located in his home base of Hoi An. Having met 49 tribes, he continues his mission to bring to light all 54 of Vietnam’s existing ethnic groups.

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EXPLORE THE MUSEUM The Precious Heritage Museum, which is home to Réhahn’s permanent exhibition of his Precious Heritage Collection, is split into four parts.

The Fine Art Room

Northern Vietnam

The first steps on your journey will take you through the Fine Art Room. Here, you will be met by all of Rehahn’s most iconic and best selling photographs. Many of these images are very personal to the French photographer and mark signicant turning points in his career, vision and development as a photographer.

After passing through the Fine Arts Room, you will begin your exploration of Northern Vietnam. The North, with its towering mountains and lush rice paddies, is where you are most likely to find ethnic groups still wearing their traditional dress. During his discovery of the North, Rehahn was given a total of thirty-eight authentic ethnic costumes, which are now on display and he hopes to add more soon!

Central And Southern Vietnam

Coffee Room

Some of the areas in Central and Southern Vietnam have remained inaccessible to foreigners for many years. Réhahn has worked tirelessly over the years to obtain permits and access to these remote areas. This part of the museum is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity to see images of the people there and their beautiful dress, many of which are no longer being made.

Réhahn has recently added his Precious Heritage Coffee Room to his museum, so that you can take a break and enjoy the highest quality, organic coffee and honey, sourced directly from ethnic groups in Vietnam, before you make your way through Central and Southern Vietnam. There are a variety of products from the ethnic community on sale in the Coffee Room, which helps provide ethnic communities a sustainable income.

DID YOU KNOW?

O Du is the smallest ethnic group in Vietnam. The population is 376 people only (cencus 2009).The O Du only have 5 complete original costumes left and one of them now is displayed in the Precious Heritage Museum.

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DISCOVERING THE ANCESTRAL TRADITION OF INDIGO DYEING AND BATIK WITH THE H’MONG The H'mong are originally from China

but have been living in Sapa, Vietnam for over 300 years. They are the largest ethnic group in Sapa and make up just over half of the population. In July 2017, Réhahn visited a H’mong group in Pa Co, a village located in Hoa Binh province. There, he met Sung Y Xia, a 39 year old woman who practices the art of indigo dyeing and batik drawing.

She has been practicing the batik style since the young age of fifteen and has become an expert in her trade, despite being younger than most batik masters.

H’mong women, like Sung Y Xia, can make dye from the indigo plant to produce the distinctive dark blue coloured fabric that is typical of the ethnic minorities of Sapa. Historically, this blue dye was used by the H’mong to dye their clothes and to make coats for their children to wear, which they would be pass down for generations.

Today many locals in Pa Co make the beautiful blue tinted fabric to sell to be used in products in Hanoi and other areas of Vietnam and the practice represents greater financial opportunities for these ethnic groups.

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Indigo dye can be extracted from several plants, but because the indigo plant is more widely available, it is therefore more commonly used. Over three hundred different species have been identified but the Indigo tinctoria and I. suifruticosa are the most common and belong to the legume family. The indigo plants of the H’mong are grown and harvested on the hillsides next to their homes and when fermented and oxidized, a blue dye can be made from its leaves.

Making good quality indigo dye requires a lot of experience, quality ingredients and time and the whole process can take as long as ten days to one month to complete.

To make the dye, leaves from the indigo tree are harvested and soaked for three days in a container with water from a clean stream. The leaves are then removed and the coloured water is kept and lime is added. This liquid is stirred gently until a green-yellow layer appears on its surface, which usually takes a few hours. Once the liquids sediment has settled at the bottom of the barrel, ash from good quality wood, rice soup, water and alcohol are added to the mixture. The liquid must be mixed for four to five days until bubbles appear. These bubbles are a sign of a successful Batik dye making process.

Hemp thread

Preparing the indigo dye

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Ms Sung Y Xia is drawing on the hemp fabric

Indigo liquid

Batik drawing with melted beewax

Melted beewax in batik technique

Fabric with batik pattern and indigo dyed

Once the dye has been prepared the Batik master can use beeswax and special tools to draw patterns and designs into hemp fabric, a process that can take one to two months. The hemp material is covered in beeswax and tools are used to remove the beeswax from the cloth in patterns or designs. The fabric is then soaked in the Batik dye and left to dry in the sun. The beeswax acts as a protective layer when the fabric is dyed and only the areas on which it has been scraped away take the colour of the Batik dye. This process can be repeated many times to create beautiful and complex multicolured designs. The more a fabric is mixed with the dye and the more it is worked on, the darker it becomes. Black H’mong fabrics are achieved by repeating the dying process, usually twice a day for a month. This process is the reason why many H’mong women have blue hands, because they have been stained permanently by the indigo dye.

DID YOU KNOW?

The name indigo comes from the Roman term indicum, which means a product of India, because it originally came from this country.

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Precious Heritage News

THE H’MONG SKIRT

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THE TREE BARK COSTUME

THE CO TU MUSEUM

This skirt has a special place in the For centuries, the Co Tu were wearing Fulfilling a promise made by Réhahn cultural heritage of the H’mong ethnic group. It’s traditionally made by a mother for her daughter when she gets married. The latter will wear it to cover herself during childbirth and will keep it all her life, so that she can be buried with it. Made with hemp and cotton, it comprises red strips, colour which, according to M’mong beliefs, drive away evil spirits from the one who wears it. Its batik pattern symbolises paw prints left by the mice in the rice paddies. As the H’mong believe that mice only come at the right season, it’s a sign of abundance for the unborn child and for the future life of the deceased. At the time of burial, it is generally worn with two shirts, but her children can make other skirts for attracting the good spirit and promote a beautiful reincarnation.

costumes made out of tree bark. They used 5 types of trees for their solid fiber. After removing the fresh bark, it was rigorously beaten to make it firmer, then soaked in a odoriferous mixture of water & spices for about 10 days, to both give it an aromatic fragrance and protect it from insects and finally let to dry for a month.

Mr. Bh'riu Liec, representative of 94 Co Tu villages in Quang Nam province gave to Réhahn the last one available, making it a meaningful and priceless piece of the museum.

ALMOST HYPNOTIC

BLUE EYES GIRL

An Phuoc

( the first page cover ) is a 7 years old girl from the Cham communitys in Ninh Thuan - Vietnam and is known as the ‘girl with the cat eyes’ in her village. Her incredible blue eyes, which look like two azure marbles, make her notably different from other girls in her community. Réhahn soon discovered that her paternal great-grandfather was French, explaining this unique feature.

Her father also has blue eyes while her sister has one blue and one hazel.

On his way to explore the Cham community, one of the followers on Facebook told him about this little girl. At first the family wasn’t so open to being photographed due to a bad experience with a journalist but by putting his camera away and listening to their story, they became more comfortable. Réhahn was invited back to take photos and ended up staying for two days. This reaffirms his belief that you have to connect with people first before you photograph them. This photo and the articles related, have been featured in numerous Vietnamese publications, as well as international media like National Geographic, BBC, Business Insider, Independent UK and has recently been the cover of Globe-Trotters in France.

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to Mr. Bh'riu Liec, Secretary of Tay Giang District, the construction of the Co Tu museum has officially begun on the 28th of April! Situated at 3 hours from Hoi An, the main building design is based on the “guol”, the traditional community house of the Co Tu. Entirely sponsored by Réhahn, the museum will feature 2 parts on 500 square meters. The first part will display the Co Tu culture and the second will be reserved for exhibition events of other tribes. A coffee shop near the river will also offer the opportunity to rest to the visitors. The opening will take place at the end of 2018. Stay tuned!

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Precious Heritage News

In April, Réhahn displayed for the first time the photo and the costume of the Khmer ethnic group in the Precious

Heritage museum of Hoi An, finishing the outlook of all the tribes of the South and Central parts of Vietnam. The costume is indeed a rare item, as only 2 or 3 families of the village of An Giang still make it nowadays.

The Khmers Krom – literally meaning Khmer from below – live in the south of Vietnam where they constitute the second ethnic group of the Mekong Delta, after the Kinh. Generally speaking, it is very rare to come across the Khmer traditional costume in their everyday life. The young generation don’t like wearing it and prefer western looking clothes that they can buy from the market.

Only women of over 50 years of age still wear it regularly to go to the temple, and shave their hair as a sign of respect for the Buddha. Réhahn only ever visited one village where two or three families are still able to make it. Yet, this silk costume is a true wonder, with patterns replicating Buddhist images of the temple.

In the past, the Khmers produced their own silk, but they now buy it from the Vietnamese, and if they still dye yarns with coloured powders, these no longer come from the forest but from Thailand. Réhahn met Neàng Phong, 83 years old on the photo, a few years ago while she was sewing the traditional costume on her doorstep. When he went back, she recognized him, and he immortalized her on this beautiful image with the costume.

THE KHMER ETHNIC COSTUME HAS BEEN ADDED TO THE MUSEUM

Population: 1,260,640 (census 2009)

HANOI

Location: Soc Trang, Tra Vinh, Tien Giang, An Giang, Hau Giang, Can Tho, Vinh Long.

Arrival: Migrated in the 15th century HOI AN

HO CHI MINH

DID YOU KNOW?

In the Khmer culture, the woman is a symbol of water because their Mother is a princess of the Sea, who has the half human half snake with 7 heads.

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Precious Heritage News

THE PHOTO BOOK The two best sellers books "Vietnam, Mosaic of Contrasts - Vol l and Vol II" by Réhahn released respectively in 2014 and 2015.

Each book is a compilation of 145 photos which depict Vietnam. It is a visual tribute to the people, young and old, the exquisite landscape and the diversity of cultures in Vietnam. This book takes you to the very heart of Vietnam; one that blends modesty, humour, childhood, old age and happiness. With very few words, Réhahn lets each photograph tells the story, leaving the viewer eager to turn the page.

The latest book is “The Collection, Réhahn - 10 years photography” was published in 2017, anthology of 10 years of career, gathers a selection of photos taken in Vietnam, Cuba, India and Malaysia feature in his galleries and his museum, his most iconic photographs as well as his personal favorite.

BEST SELLER

BEST

2014 - 2016

SELLER

2017

BEST

SELLER

2018

Available on www.rehahnphotographer.com and at Réhahn’s galleries in Hoi An and Saigon.

THE FREE PRECIOUS HERITAGE MUSEUM APPLICATION Starting in June 2018, Réhahn put at your disposal a free application, available for Android and IOS (Search for the Apps with keyword: Rehahn, Precious Heritage ), to interactively watch and learn more about each of the photo and costume exhibited in the Precious Heritage Museum in Hoi An! Accompanied by an audio commentary by Réhahn, you can now discover all the stories and secrets of the 54 ethnics groups visited by the photographer, but also keep in touch with the news of the museum directly on your smartphone. Already available in French, the audio commentary will soon be available in English and other languages in the coming months.

This free application will also give you access to the music program of the museum and to some nice back screens for your telephone, as always trying to promote the cultures of the ethnic groups of Vietnam.

THE PRECIOUS HERITAGE ART GALLERY MUSEUM 26 Phan Boi Chau Street, Hoi An, Vietnam.

OPENING HOURS 8:00 AM-8:00 PM 7 days a week

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