Looking for “Tigers” in Song Ho

The Year of the Buffalo is about to become the Year of the Tiger. People are flocking to Dong Ho commune in Bac Ninh province to buy tiger paintings for Tet.
Dong Ho village is known for folk paintings and votive papers. Villagers are now producing new products for the Year of Tiger.
Mrs. Mai, the biggest trader of votive papers in the village, welcomed VietNamNet reporters, who were amazed by her warehouse of votive paper products.
“This year will be a big year for the dead because this is the Year of Tiger! Stay here and you will see!” Mai exclaimed.
In nearly one hour at Mai’s home, VietNamNet journalists saw many clients. Mr. Quang, a customer, bought Mai’s votive paper products to sell in northern and central provinces. He said his customers only want “made-in-Dong Ho” items.
Votive paper producers work using the concept “the afterlife is the same as the land of the living” and thus they produce high-rise buildings, cars, gold, US dollars, handheld devices and computers for the dead.
The most special product for the Year of Tiger is naturally paper-made tigers. Dong Ho makes bamboo-frames in tiger shapes and then pastes colourful paper on the frames.
When asked if it is difficult to make tigers, a man named Thanh replied it is much more difficult to make tigers than other animals because tigers must be very august. “We had to work for a long time to make the tiger-shape frames.”
Thanh said that the price for a small horse is 50,000 dong and 50,000-70,000 dong for a pig, but tigers are 70,000-100,000.
Dong Ho folk paintings are very famous at home and abroad. The village currently has only three artisans making folk paintings. To welcome the Year of Tiger, artisan Nguyen Dang Che has resumed working with woodblocks of five tigers and also created his own tiger woodblocks.
“It was very hard for me to resurrect the woodblock of five tigers,” Che explained. “I had to collect many folk paintings about tigers to re-draw them. I’ve tried to renovate but still preserve the mightiness of the tiger.”
Researcher Nguyen Vu Tuan Anh revealed that the five tigers of red, green, white, black and yellow symbolize the five basic elements (yellow = metal, green = wood, white = water, red = fire, black = earth).
Che said that Dong Ho folk paintings of tigers have sold very well since early 2010. The five-tiger paintings are mainly sold to hang in shrines.