Visiting My Nghiep weaving village on a May day, the heavy rain from the night before dispelled the famous scorching heat of Phan Rang - Thap Cham, leaving the village road cool with the breeze from the Dinh River blowing in. Interspersed in the wind was the crackling sound of the weaving frame echoing from each house.
It is not surprising to see only women from My Nghiep village sitting next to the weaving frame. Because the Cham people here follow matriarchal customs, passed down between generations of women in the family, from grandmother to mother, from mother to daughter. Therefore, My Nghiep weaving village is considered the cradle of the Cham brocade weaving profession.
The special feature that creates the attractiveness of My Nghiep village is the preservation of the traditional craft weaving technique of the Cham people. Despite the development of weaving technology, Cham weavers still use traditional wooden weaving frames, some up to 3 meters long, as well as performing each precise operation and maintaining the flexible rhythm of the spinning wheel, bearing a strong cultural imprint of the past.
Cham brocade is very diverse in patterns, often ancient symbols, imbued with cultural values such as the god Shiva, gods in Cham beliefs. These brocade patterns not only show decoration, aesthetic ability but also serve different garment purposes.
However, Cham brocade also knows how to reinvent itself. They accept basic patterns in the field of weaving to incorporate into their own brocade designs, even using symbolic patterns of other ethnic groups to meet the needs of new customer groups.
Clearly, Cham brocade expresses the spirit and traditional quintessence of its nation, but also knows how to expand and integrate with new things in the process of intersecting and cultural exchange between regions so that its brocade has a new vitality and conquers the world.
We will see the liberal and open spirit based on the traditional foundation of the Cham people right in such a small detail. Not only that, it also shows the creative and skillful weaving techniques of the Cham people when producing that type of brocade on traditional fabrics.
Not only that, the women of My Nghiep weaving village also do not limit weaving fabrics to traditional materials such as cotton fibers. They have researched other types of fibers such as synthetic fibers, glitter fibers to combine with cotton fibers, creating visual and lighting products.
Holding in your hand a brocade piece that can be used to sew clothes or scarves, we will see that they are luminous thanks to the reaction of the fibers to light. Nothing is more impressive than thousands of Cham people shining shimmering light when gathering on Kate Day - the traditional Tet of the Cham people in the former Ninh Thuan region.
It is worth mentioning that in the past ten years or so, brocade weaving in My Nghiep village and Cham brocade has not only been framed in the field of fabrics and textiles, but has been packaged into a complete tourism product. They turn textile techniques, craft space, and production equipment into tourist destinations, just like the Bau Truc pottery village has done.
In My Nghiep village, there is a community brocade production center with a large space for Cham women to sit and weave fabric on multi-sized weaving frames. They both weave fabric, model for tourists to take photos, patiently answer all questions, and enthusiastically guide tourists on how to weave.
This place also has an exhibition area, introducing the weaving techniques of the Cham people, an exhibition area for fabric frames and technical details, displaying traditional costumes for all classes in the Cham society from ancient times to the present, and a commercial area serving the shopping needs of tourists.
That is how the Cham people in My Nghiep village preserve and develop the brocade weaving profession of their ethnic group.
The brocade products of My Nghiep village are assessed as both retaining traditional characteristics with natural sophistication, and meeting the requirements of convenience and high applicability in everyday clothing.
The Cham people have a history of growing cotton plants to weave fabric for a long time, it is said that it was taught by the goddess Po Yang Inư Nagar - Mother of the land - along with the brocade weaving profession. To weave a brocade fabric in the traditional style, it takes several days, depending on the size of the fabric and patterns.
