Taking home a "non la" - that is, to take a piece of VietnamTaking home a "non la" - that is, to take a piece of Vietnam

How inseparable it is? The hat has a conical shape, made out of straw and is kept o­n the head by a silk cloth chin trap that keeps the hat from slipping out of the wearer's head. This traditional conical hat is particularly suitable for farmers in such a tropical country as Vietnam where fierce sunshine and hard rains take place as often as girls’ sulking. It can be used as a basin or a bowl to contain water when they are thirsty, as a fan when they are hot, as a basket of a bunch of vegetables. Romantically, young couples can veil their kisses behind this traditional conical hat during their dates.

The legend behind the hat is that, o­nce upon a time, there was a very tall woman who often wore a magical kind of hat made from four round leaves knitted together with bamboo. Wherever this woman appeared, clouds passed and the weather became favorable. After teaching people to plant vegetables and trees for their living, she secretly passed and ascended to the heavens. Yet, she was honored as the Goddess of Human and ever since, they have made hats in the shape of hers to protect themselves from the sun and the rain.

A long history. According to historian Le Van Lan, Vietnamese girls and women have worn the conical hat for a long time. The ancestor of today’s conical hat was carved o­n Ngoc Lu kettledrum and Ao Thinh bronze jar 2,500 to 3000 years ago. “Though no o­ne knows exactly when the hat was born, for a long time the conical hat has been considered the symbol of Vietnamese farmers and Vietnamese people, in general,” says Lan.

The original lands of conical hat

If you ask me where you can find the best conical hat, I would say that due to its popularity, each region in Vietnam has a well-known conical hat - making village. The conical hat of the Tay group has a distinctively red color, whereas that in Thanh Hoa differs from others with a 20-hem frame. Hue's is thin and elegant, contrary to the thick o­nes from Binh Dinh.

Chuong village produces 7,000 to 8,000 conical hats per day and about three million hats per year for both domestic use and export. “Our regular clients from the south, the centre or other northern provinces phone in orders so we can deliver immediately,” said Tuy, a 40-year old craftsman. “My latest contract is with a handicrafts export company, in which I proposed to export up to 5,000 conical hats to Japan.”

It seems that every family in Chuong village is making conical hats. According to statistics, 80 percent of the village’s population earn their living by conical hat production. The average income is around VND 700,000 to VND 1 million a month; the income is higher in summer than in winter as it is harder to sew the hats in winter. In the village, you o­nly pay VND 3,500- VND 10,000 for a hat but in Hanoi, it might cost VND 30,000 to VND100, 000 depending o­n the quality.