With a history of over 200 years of development in Binh Dinh, the sedge mat weaving village has been recognized as a traditional craft village by the People's Committee of Binh Dinh province.

Photo: Truyenhinhdulich

During the harvest season, this sedge mat village attracts thousands of tourists to visit every year. There are also aspiring photographers coming here to create many magnificent works with their camera lenses. Most of the households here are attached to sedge growing and weaving mats for a long time, and it is passed down from generation to generation. Mats are not only a daily use item but also show the culture of Vietnamese people.

The "ripe" sedge season is also the time when the summer heat of April-June is like a pan of fire. Therefore, from early morning, when dawn just rose, glimmering the gentle rays of the beginning of the day into space, diligent farmers were busy in the fields to harvest sedges.

The dyeing process to create colorful sedge mats. Photo: Truyenhinhdulich

There are two ways to harvest sedges: machine and manual. Using the machine as well as a normal lawn mower, while the manual one is familiar with and experienced in using a long sharp blade and large sharp sickle to cut the sedge. Fresh sedges are tied up in bundles, standing in the middle of the field looking like warriors.

In the early morning mist, people carry the burden in the middle of the vast sedge fields, creating a picture of the countryside as beautiful as a dream.

Photo: truyenhinhdulich

The manual sedge splitter has been attached to the people here for generations. Right behind the two front wooden shafts (top and bottom) is a 6cm high cutter consisting of multiple blades lined up side by side along the length between the two wooden shafts.

There are two types of sedge mats in Hoai Nhon: smooth mats and flower mats. Plain mats are woven from rustic, idyllic white sedges. The flower mat is woven from white sedge fibers interspersed with dyed sedge fibers to create a unique patterned mat, even according to the buyer's sample.

The sedge field stretches endlessly like a green carpet. Photo: Du Lich

Plain mats are made relatively simple because they are woven from undyed white sedges. The weaving of flower mats is much more elaborate. Flower mats in Binh Dinh do not have to be woven in white before they are used to print flowers on the background like in some other regions but must choose sedge yarn for dyeing and color depending on the makers.

The colored sedge fibers, after drying, are woven into flower mats. In the middle of the mats, there are words like "life", "song Hy", or "hundred years of happiness" printed on them. And in the four corners, there are decorative patterns of many types, and the outer brace has two lines either red or blue, which create a very elegant and harmonious look.

The sedge mat weaving process. Photo: Dulich

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