SPECIAL POTTERY - The Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta province of Vĩnh Long launches a cultural space called “Terracotta Road” to honour the art of terracotta pottery. VNA/VNS Photo by Lê Thuý Hằng

The road is 500m long and located in Vĩnh Long City’s Ward 9.

It displays around 2,500 terracotta products from 16 pottery manufacturers in the province, such as a wide variety of vases, tea tables and stools, decoration items, and bricks.

The highlights of the space are a model of a traditional house in the south made from 25,000 bricks, and a traditional brick kiln.

According to Nguyễn Thị Quyên Thanh, deputy chairwoman of the provincial People’s Committee, the “Terracotta Road” aims to promote terracotta products of the province among people in Vĩnh Long and visitors from across the country and the world, which contributes to preserving the province’s unique cultural values and handicraft villages that make terracotta products.

Vĩnh Long is known as having the most famous and largest brick and pottery villages in the Mekong Delta.

In 1980s, the province had more than 3,000 kilns in Mang Thít and Long Hồ Districts, offering thousands of high-quality products which were exported to Europe, the US, South Korea, Japan, and other countries.

However, the number of pottery manufacturers in recent years has decreased, and the province now has only about 20 manufacturers.

The People’s Committee approved a project called “Contemporary Heritage of Mang Thít” to preserve 653 traditional kilns in Mang Thít District, and encourage more than 360 households to keep the handicraft.

Thanh said the project is expected to bring terracotta products of Vĩnh Long to the international market. — VNS